The Wheel

“We are sleep-walking into the collapse of a huge and essential range of services if we don’t address the shortfalls in funding which thousands of not-for-profits are experiencing,” warns Senan Turnbull, who has a lifetime’s experience in the Community and Voluntary Sector.

A proposed policy that intends to encourage and grow philanthropy in Ireland was announced this week by Minister for Community Development and Charities, Joe O’Brien. Ireland’s First National Philanthropy Policy is being developed by the Government in collaboration with key stakeholders. The public consultation phase of the policy was launched on May 23 at The Wheel’s Annual Summit.

The Wheel’s new CEO, it was announced on Monday, is Ivan Cooper, formerly the organisation’s director of public policy. He is widely known for his work, but he is also a history and geography buff, a keen cyclist and one of the many Dubs living in County Wicklow.

Managers in the community and voluntary sector are warning of a crisis in the recruitment and retention of staff, as salaries in the sector have stagnated due to lack of funding.

An overdue document was launched by Minister of State for Community Development, Joe O’Brien, with help from Ivan Cooper of The Wheel and Rachel Doyle of Community Work Ireland, on October 19. It was overdue in so much as it could be helpful for a couple living together for years, even if they sometimes drive each other bananas, to see what they actually agree on. The seven-page document outlines an agreed set of values and principles to be used by central and local government, as well as state bodies, for collaboration and partnership when working with groups in the community and voluntary sector.

As Budget 2023 is moved forward to September 27, Changing Ireland examines some of the key proposals of groups working in the social inclusion and community sector.

Speakers at a recent human rights event in Cork showed they are wiser now to the inequalities from our response to Covid-19 and we’re not all in this together, not when you look at the life-chances during this pandemic of migrants, care home residents, Travellers, and others. As one speaker put it, capitalism is dictating our morality. BETH ARDILL REPORTS:

Here’s what community-based groups working to fight poverty and exclusion want from the next government. They want housing prioritised. They want childcare workers paid a just wage, rights for people with disabilities, action to end violence against women, priority given to independent community development work and the appointment of a minister for older people. The new government will be called on to restrict the ‘fast fashion’ industry and there is much more.