A transparency project tracking the sources of funding for NGOs in Ireland has been shuttered after, ironically enough, the Irish government cut the project’s principal source of public funding.
Benefacts.ie, which had previously been Ireland’s biggest centralised database on NGOs operating in the country, has been shuttered after it had its main source of public funding cut by the government.
Ireland’s NGO sector experienced nearly €14bn in turnover in 2021 alone, with the government providing over €6bn to the sector in public funding.
However, despite the large sums of money flowing through Ireland’s non-profits, according to the Irish Examiner, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform saw it fit to terminate the site’s funding, with one government minister, Michael McGrath TD, claiming that the department’s “business case for its continued funding of Benefacts was no longer justified”.
As a result, the database set up by the organisation — which detailed the funding of 20,695 non-profits — closed up on Tuesday, with a short message being posted on the domain that used to house the old database.
“Benefacts 7-year project to transform the transparency and digital accessibility of Ireland’s nonprofit sector has come to an end [sic],” the message reads.
“Support from the lead Government funder (the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform) terminates at the end of March and although other public and philanthropic funding is available, an alternative funding coalition could not be assembled without another Government department taking over the lead funding role,” the message continues.
“As a result and with great regret, the Board has had no alternative but to terminate all contracts, cease operations and wind up the company.”
The Irish Examiner meanwhile reports that the Department of Rural and Community Development has gained internal state approval to set up its own database akin to Benefacts, despite Minister McGrath’s reported claim that there was no business case for funding the project run by Benefacts.
While there remain other ways to research the funding of NGOs operating in Ireland, Benefacts had made the process much easier for the general public to quickly and conveniently discover the funding behind organisations in public life.
Because of this, a number of eyebrows have been raised as to why the project had its funding pulled, especially considering another Irish Examiner report that the company behind the valuable database reportedly had “little engagement” with the department regarding the decision.
“It is rather interesting that the government decided to cut off funding to a resource that actually provided a service to the public when Ireland has over 34,000 NGOs, taking in over 6 billion euro in public money each year, many of whom produce nothing of value but serve primarily to keep a particular class of political insider employed on the public’s dime,” investigative journalist for Gript Media, Gary Kavanagh, told Breitbart London.
“At the end of the day the only impact cutting funding to Benefacts will have is to ensure the public know less about where their money is going, and Irish NGOs will have more cover to push their own pet political projects without scrutiny,” Kavanagh continued.
Another journalist who frequently investigates the funding of non-profits in Ireland expressed his disappointment at the database’s closure, telling Breitbart London that the Benefacts site had been a “godsend for research”.
Catherine Murphy TD, who jointly leads Ireland’s left-wing Social Democrats, also expressed disbelief over the government decision to end support for the project.
“I just don’t see the logic behind the decision to cut Benefacts’ funding,” Murphy told the Irish Examiner. “I think there is merit in an extension of funding in the current context.”
“I would dearly love to find out what was the planning process, and the thinking behind it, and not having a replacement in place,” the Kildare North TD added.