Ged Nash: Decision to pull plug on Benefacts should be reviewed immediately
Citizens are entitled to know who gets what and how our money is spent
In a few weeks, with the closure of Benefacts, Ireland will lose an online resource that has transformed the transparency and accessibility of Ireland’s non-profit sector.
The decision of Michael McGrath, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, to discontinue funding to this small, specialised data analytics company raises serious questions about this government’s commitment to transparency and genuine reform in the wider public service.
Benefacts was established as a social enterprise in 2015 with explicit support and funding from then minister Brendan Howlin. It was one of a series of Labour Party reforms to improve the analytic capacity of the civil and public services. It is true that we can manage only what we measure.
Co-funding from philanthropic bodies allowed Benefacts to produce reports and other services targeted on the vast non-profit sector itself. For the first time, anybody anywhere had ready access to current, trustworthy and comparable data on Ireland’s €14 billion non-profit sector – a sector that, according to Benefacts own directory of State funding, attracts at least €7.4 billion in taxpayers’ money annually.
Citizens are entitled to know who gets what and how our money is spent. My time as a member of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (2012-14) confirmed much of what I had already suspected about the opaque practices of some large, state-funded voluntary bodies.
One of the key issues that has impeded reform efforts previously has been the lack of robust data. Before Benefacts was established it was practically impossible to access a complete and reliable picture of the scale, work, governance arrangements and funding of the 34,000 non-profits operating in a sector that – we now know - employs 165,000 people. The Central Statistics Office – a watchword for reliable data – relies on a quarterly feed from Benefacts for the preparation of the National Accounts.
Until recently, the raw data about the sector was scattered in dozens of regulatory and funding silos across government. Benefacts broke new ground, using an innovative data mining approach to produce a coherent stream of information, thereby progressing the transparency of the sector in a new and radical way. It shone a light where none previously existed.
The imminent demise of this small but valuable social enterprise and the loss of these skills and experience is a bad day for anyone with the slightest interest in reform and transparency in the public and non-profit sectors. It is not too late to retain this body and the unique service it provides. It is a question of political will.
And let’s be clear, “the non-profit sector does fantastic work, often with high degrees of efficiency and professionalism. But the starting point for how the sector can improve, how it might need to change, has to be the facts – and a huge challenge in the past has been integrating all the facts in a single place, in a way that’s accessible to all”.
That was the previous Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, paying credit to Benefacts on the launch of its first annual report on the sector in 2017. I could not have put it better myself.
Having published its fifth annual report on the non-profit sector last year, Benefacts can truly be said to have moved the dial in helping to drive higher standards and greater public confidence in the sector is run, governed and funded.
Its report on Irish philanthropies at the end of last year brought new levels of transparency to the rather opaque world of institutional giving – another policy area that is supposedly a priority for this government.
Benefacts State Funders Directory – including, for the first time, evidence of where the proceeds of the tickets we buy in the National Lottery are being spent – on its own should justify the annual €1.5 million cost of the service, which is insignificant in the context of overall public spending in this area of €7.4 billion.
The discontinuation of Benefacts’ funding by Minister McGrath begs serious questions about the sincerity of the government’s commitment to driving reform, transparency and ensuring value for money.
If the Minister believes there is no longer any value in their work, he should say so. He should also tell us how he intends to produce and publish this vital data once Benefacts own lights are switched off in two weeks, and how much it will costs. The explanations to date have been far from convincing.
The last three weeks have seen a lot of silly sloganeering about productivity in the public and civil service which is devoid of detail or solid reform proposals. Benefacts has been a ground breaker both in terms of the data it produced and its devolved model.
This decision is a prime example of us going backwards. Better data use will be a key driver of new and modern public services and this decision to pull the plug on Benefacts should be reviewed immediately.
Ged Nash is a Labour TD for Louth and East Meath and is the party’s spokesman on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
