Ministers should be ensuring financial efficiency within the State by “following the money” and auditing their Department’s spending, including NGO funding, the Government’s Chief Whip has indicated.
The remarks were made on RTÉ’s The Week In Politics on Sunday, as Fianna Fáil TD Mary Butler outlined an audit she had ordered as Junior Minister for Mental Health last year at the Department of Health.
“Last year, for example, as Minister for Mental Health, €110 million of the budget for mental health went to various NGOs on a service level agreement,” she said.
“I asked for every one of those to be looked at, to be audited, and to assess whether we are getting value for money. That’s what you do as a Minister—you have to follow the money.”
The comments were made in the context of a discussion around the “waste of taxpayers’ money” by the Arts Council over a failed IT project, which was revealed last week.
“I now sit at cabinet, and last Wednesday, Minister Patrick O’Donovan brought a member to Cabinet, raising his concerns about the waste of taxpayers’ money,” Butler said.
“Minister O’Donovan has put in place a threefold piece of work now. He’s looking for a review of exactly what has happened in relation to the €7 million for the Arts Council, where approximately €5.7 million of that cannot be recouped anywhere.”
She also added that O’Donovan was “looking at Governance across the whole Department, because he’s really not happy with what he’s seeing,” adding that there are still “live” questions with the Governance of RTÉ.
“He has also asked that every single funding allocation made available to different organizations undergo a full audit and control review as well,” she added.
Butler is not the first Government figure to voice support for an audit of State funding of the NGO sector.
Since the overwhelming defeat of the Family and Care referendums in March of 2024, and the significant activist NGO support for a “Yes” vote, Fine Gael Enterprise Minister Peter Burke has repeatedly called for a “review” of the NGO sector and how “representative” such groups are of public sentiment.
In addition to this, Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, who previously served on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has recommended that the Comptroller and Auditor General and the PAC should have the authority to audit taxpayer-funded NGOs and examine precisely how they are spending public money.