We need clarity about spending in charity and voluntary sector

OURS is the first generation in the history of the State where the provision of social services is mainly non-denominationalal.

The State has taken up some of the slack and nearly all of the bill. Fine Gael’s Senator Colm Burke ascertained the bill amounted to €3.27 billion to 2,680 organisations from the HSE alone in 2012. Just 48 of those organisations accounted for 86% of that money. Officials from their ultimate paymaster, the Department of Health, will appear before the Public Accounts Committee on Dec 19.

Much of the organisational control, once almost exclusively denominational, is now secularised.