Sir, – I would like to thank Niall Crowley (Opinion, November 21st) for highlighting the One Percent Difference website www.onepercentdifference.ie and I would urge readers to visit the site, calculate their 1 per cent, but more importantly, look at some of the more than 690 organisations that have signed up to the campaign and the work they do. In doing so, readers will gain a new appreciation of the immense contribution civil society makes to life in Ireland.
Civil society organisations and the volunteers and donors who support them, do everything from helping vulnerable children to supporting the cultural and sporting organisations, not to mention funding overseas development projects. In short, they are the primary generator of social capital in the State and are richly deserving of public support.
That said, Mr Crowley’s reading of the One Percent Difference campaign is somewhat surprising. The campaign is not “deliberately tapping into our very unhappy relationship with tax”; in fact the central insight which drives the campaign is that Irish people are highly empathic, if shown a need they will respond to it. The campaign is trying to tap into basic decency, which is one of the characteristics of the Irish.
Philanthropy and charitable giving are neither substitutes for paying tax, nor for government investment, and no one I know is arguing they can or should be. The reason is mathematics. The most generous philanthropist this country has known, will have donated, in a lifetime of giving, approximately €1 billion to good causes in Ireland North and South. In comparison, the Irish State spends well over €1 billion every week. The resources philanthropy and charitable fundraising can tap into are tiny compared to the resources of the State, but can nevertheless play a major role in unleashing the talents and energies of thousands of volunteers for the public good, and in funding initiatives which government will never fund, such as advocacy. A vibrant and independent civil society is critical to the health of any nation, without funding from the public it will be neither.
Mr Crowley references an entirely separate proposal by Frank Flannery to encourage investment in the social sector by allowing those individuals who are non-resident for tax proposes to stay in Ireland up to the internationally recognised limit of 183 days on the payment of €5 million to a Government-designated fund or funds, and €1 million a year to the exchequer for 10 years. This is an interesting idea, but it is neither charity nor philanthropy as the funds are not controlled by the investor and the investor is receiving a benefit. Nor is it part of the One Percent Difference Campaign.
If Mr Crowley is uneasy about the campaign, I would be equally uneasy about his suggestion that simply paying your taxes is the limit to the contribution you can make to your community or your country. Thankfully, hundreds of thousands of people are willing to give generously of their time and money to supporting civil society, and to making Ireland a better and a fairer country. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS MULCONRY,
Executive Director,
Philanthropy Ireland,
Merrion Square,
Dublin 2.