In the run up to the 2024 general election, Sinn Féin leveled a criticism of certain NGOs, describing them as “out of touch with the public”.
WhichCandidate.ie, a platform operated by the University of Limerick, is an online resource that helps Irish voters to identify political candidates whose views align with their own by matching responses to key issues with those of the candidates.
During the 2024 general election, one of the featured questions was: “Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have too much power in Irish policy making.”
Sinn Féin answered that they “Neither agree nor disagree” with this statement.
The party explained that while “NGOs have a role to play in policy making, they are no substitute for elected representatives and community groups, and some NGOs have shown themselves to be out of touch with the public and with the people they purport to represent.”
This seems to echo previous remarks by Fine Gael Enterprise Minister Peter Burke, who has repeatedly called for a “review of the NGO sector” to assess how representative some organisations’ views are compared to public opinion.
“I do think, if you look at the roster of ‘Yes’ campaigners, and those advocates from political parties to NGOs, it’s been quite significant and quite large,” Burke said in the aftermath of the defeated Family and Care referendums, adding: “…I think we need to look and see, in terms of how much some NGOs are reflective of the communities that we live in.”
Similarly, Justice Minister Helen McEntee criticised so-called “anti-racist” NGOs that refer to terms such as “white privilege”, saying that “any organisation that engages in that kind of behaviour is not one that I want to see have funding”, and that NGOs which promote such “racist” ideas will face increased scrutiny and may see their State funding cut.