A new law for charities starts its passage through the Dáil today but, argues Ivan Cooper, our 19,000-plus community and voluntary groups need support as well as regulation.
With two-thirds of Irish adults (that's over two million people) engaging annually in the social, cultural and humanitarian activities offered by our community and voluntary sector, it's no great surprise to learn that the sector contributes over €2.5 billion to the economy each year and employs over 63,000 full-time and part-time staff.
With the Charities Bill 2007 beginning its passage through the Dáil today, many of these organisations will find that they will have to report to the new regulator of charities when the Bill is enacted.
This will mean that all charities will have to clearly demonstrate that they operate to the highest standards when the resulting charities regulator is up and running.
This has to be good for everyone associated with charities, but rising to these challenges will demand increasing levels of professionalism and accountability from boards, directors, managers and staff of voluntary organisations.
This, in turn, will require a big increase in the quantity and quality of funding directed to supporting all this activity. We cannot continue to increase the demands made on our voluntary sector without putting adequate funds and supports in place. So what's needed?
Firstly, it needs to be noted that community and voluntary organisations have been urging the Government to regulate charities for many years now, arguing that charities have nothing to fear from regulation and much to gain.
Benefits will include greater transparency by charities to the public and to their clients, streamlining of the many authorities that regulate a charity's work and clarification of the duties of directors and trustees.
While welcoming the fact that the long-awaited passage through the Oireachtas of the Charities Bill 2007 begins today, it is important that the Bill, when enacted, ensures that charities remain entitled to engage in all types of campaigning and advocacy activity related to furthering their legitimate charitable purposes, and that working to promote human rights and social justice are explicitly named as charitable purposes.
Charities must also be financially supported to rise to the additional demands that working in a regulated environment will impose.
Secondly, if voluntary organisations are to be a source of innovation in public service delivery, as per the Towards 2016 national agreement, then they must be able to plan.
This, in turn, means there must be reasonable security of income. No one - neither profit-making company nor voluntary organisation - can plan for the future if they have no security of income.
Community and voluntary organisations raise funds from diverse sources, but many rely on the State for a proportion of their funding.
For those organisations that depend on statutory funding, many encounter difficulties in securing financial aid that covers the full cost of the work that they do.
For example, most statutory funding will not allow an organisation to use the funds on the very real indirect or organisational overhead costs associated with delivery of the service.
To address the security-of-income and the full-cost-recovery issues, we need a new framework for the statutory funding of voluntary organisations.
This new framework must provide multi-annual funding that covers both the direct and indirect (or hidden) costs of running these organisations, funding that is index-linked to national pay agreements so that organisations can retain committed staff by paying them fairly.
We also need to improve the tax incentives system for donations to charities and voluntary organisations so that all donations are tax effective, as opposed to the current system whereby only donations greater than €250 per year can be made in a tax-efficient manner.
Thirdly, Ireland has built a world-class support-infrastructure for business. In addition to cash grants and tax reliefs, the State provides supports for firms in the areas of research and development, training and organisational development among many others - think of the programmes operated by the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the County Enterprise Boards or the training programmes tailored for business such as Skillnets.
These supports have contributed in no small way to enabling Irish business to compete internationally and play its part in contributing to the building of a strong Irish economy.
There is now a need to provide a similar, integrated, nationwide, infrastructure of support to enable the voluntary sector to strengthen Irish society and make Ireland a better place to live in. It should be targeted at the needs of voluntary organisations and provide training, advice, and supports in the areas of board development, governance, leadership, general management and financial management.
If we want to develop and support the sustainable communities of place and interest that underpin an equal and just Ireland, then we must support and enable voluntary activity in a purposeful and strategic manner.
This will be achieved when community and voluntary organisations are funded appropriately, regulated sensitively and supported comprehensively.
• Ivan Cooper is director of advocacy at The Wheel, a national organisation for the community and voluntary sector. Further details from www.wheel.ie