Charities call for spike in central funding as they face battle to survive 

Barnardos ambassador Richard Sadlier with Senan O’Neill, seven, and Darcey Campion, 12, at the launch of Barnardos Giving Day earlier this month. Charities across the country are facing issues with funding, with some struggling to recruit staff.

Charities face a struggle to survive unless there is a significant increase in central funding, their representative body has warned.

The Wheel said the recruitment and retention crisis faced by charities is impacting on services to vulnerable people.

It outlined what it described as a legacy of "chronic underfunding" in the sector and said more than a 1,000 organisations funded by either the HSE or Tusla and providing essential services are now under severe pressure.

Earlier this year, the Wheel published a report outlining the extent of those pressures. 

Half of respondents to a survey said they did not have sufficient funding for services this year, with almost 70% receiving some statutory funding.

Representatives of Barnardos and Depaul outlined the extent of the crisis facing many of the people they are assisting at an event in Dublin. There, the Wheel said the charities and community organisations themselves are in real need of more funds.

The Wheel's CEO, Ivan Cooper, said: "We are calling it chronic underfunding coupled with the increased pressures of inflation creating a real, active threat to charities and community organisations who provide essential services."

Mr Cooper said many of these organisations are part or fully funded by the State through different departments or agencies and that those funding levels have been static since 2008.

Staffing difficulties

"What we are now seeing to make matters worse is a full-blown recruitment and retention crisis in the sector," he said.

"It is across the economy but it is made worse for charities because these organisations are on fixed budgets provided by government departments and can no longer offer adequate wages to attract staff."

Mr Cooper said he does not believe there is a view in government that charities and community organisations should be seen as vocational or that people working in them are overpaid. 

But he said there may be a view that those organisations will never "down tools".

However, Mr Cooper said there is a very real risk that some would simply stop operating due to the financial pressures they are experiencing.

He said there needs to be a 10% or €100m increase in funding to organisations that provide Section 39 services, funded by the State and delivered by charities.

Mr Cooper welcomed the Vat compensation scheme already introduced by Government for the sector but said the cap on this needs to be doubled and that Ireland also needs to increase its overall tax take.

He also said multi-annual funding is needed as many charities find it increasingly difficult to operate year-to-year.