One of the questions exercising the minds of observers – including, it would seem, members of government political parties – is the role which publicly funded advocacy NGOs played as the main promoters of the Yes/Yes side in the referendums which were overwhelmingly rejected at the weekend.
The National Women’s Council of Ireland seemed to have elected itself to be the point person and co-ordinator of the campaign. Its large financial take from the taxpayer was examined again recently by Gary Kavanagh of this parish, who calculated that most of its funds are squeezed out of the taxpayer. On polling day it issued hourly calls to battle for liberal Ireland to head towards the polling stations.
It has had little to say since the results, mind you, preferring to pore over the ancient myths of the liberal bourgeoisie who would have you believe that they lived under persecution for generations, when the truth is that they have always been a powerful and often decisive voice in Irish public life.
But in the aftermath of the resounding rejection of both proposals at the weekend, questions must surely be asked of those organisations which were happy to sign up for Yes/Yes, and who are part of the graphic below advertising their commitment to the government side in a referendum.
Questions, for example, about the fact that, for most of these NGOS, most of their funding comes from the very same government proposing the referenda.
Almost every single one of them are dependent on the taxpayers – the same people who have just delivered a thumping NoNo vote.
And there are also questions to be asked about why organisations which are nearly entirely taxpayer funded, because that’s what public funding is, are allowed to campaign for a referendum proposal, given the McKenna and McCrystal judgements.
As Gary’s analysis of NWCI funding shows, of the €9.2 million raised between 2013 and 2022, a full €7.4 million came from the public purse. That means that the organisation was 80% funded by the state. In contrast just 4.1% of that income came from voluntary membership fees and subscriptions.
Pertinent to this discussion is the revelation that “over 96% of the organisation’s staffing costs over the last 3 years were paid for with grants from government departments and publicly funded entities such as the HSE”.
Will NWCI be asked to explain how they ensured the time of publicly-funded staff time wasn’t spent on the YesYes campaign? Will the same transparency be required for other NGOs?
A similar picture emerges from an examination of some of the main advocacy NGOs who feature in the colourful graphic. Just eight of these; LGBT Ireland, Oxfam Ireland, Children’s Rights Alliance, Treoir, Spunout, Family Carers, Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) and Community Work Ireland had a combined income of €40.3 million in their last published financial statements.
Of that sum, almost €25 million, or more than 61% came directly from the state. Others receive substantial amounts from millionaire philanthropists. The Children’s Rights Alliance for example – an organisation vastly funded as we have shown previously by Atlantic Philanthropies – received €529,000 or over half of its funding in 2022 from this source. TENI received €81,730 from the Sigrid Rausing Foundation.
The state dependency figure is actually distorted by Oxfam which has the largest income of the eight NGOs in question, as it receives around a quarter of its income in donations. One wonders to what extent donors realise the extent to which Oxfam Ireland has aligned itself with government proposals on referendum campaigns, and indeed has protested in support of “hate legislation”.
Some of the NGOs are almost completely dependent on tax payers money – over 99% in the case of Community Work Ireland. Family Carers Ireland get 95% of their funding from the state. Which surely begs the question as to who Family Carers Ireland actually represent given the overwhelming rejection of the “Care” proposal, which was heavily criticised by actual carers rather than those who say they “advocate” for them.
Treoir, which claims to represent single parents – another target constituency for the Care Bears pushing Yes/Yes, but who quite patently rejected the advice and scaremongering about how families are currently defined – received €794,461 of its last declared income of €834,000 from the state. That amounts to a 95% dependency on the state.
The same lack of public support identified in relation to the National Women’s Council (NWCI) – with the exception of Oxfam – is also apparent in the small part of the income of these NGOs that comes from voluntary membership fees and donations. For the seven others named above, this accounted for less than 2% of their income.
In some cases this borders on the barely accountable. TENI received just €1,552 or 0.38% of its income from membership fees. Treoir only managed to persuade people to donate €2,182, or 0.26% of its income of €834,000. The treasurer of a local GAA, soccer, or darts club would be shown the door if presenting such accounts.
While the NWCI, and other well-funded but small and unrepresentative advocacy NGOs, might have some excuse for being out of touch with the public mood, surely that same claim could not be made by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and the two large trade unions Fórsa and Unite, which were also happy to throw their weight into the disastrous campaign. The same question might be posed to the Union of Students of Ireland.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions claims to represent more than 600,000 workers in affiliated unions. Fórsa claims to represent over 80,000 members in the public service. Think on that for a moment. A trade union whose membership is entirely made up of people working in the public service decided to affiliate itself publicly to a government campaign in a referendum. That was the relationship that unfree trade unions had with the former Communist states.
Did the ICTU annual Congress have a vote on this issue and decide to advocate a vote on the same side as the government and the rest of the political establishment in Sinn Féin and the smaller left wing parties? Did Fórsa? Did Unite?
These are questions that need to be answered along with a deep scrutiny of the funding of the left-liberal NGOs and their way too powerful position in Irish society and public life.