Praise for Government body amid closure controversy
The Murphy td By Branded Wind Pac Vice Of Decision Picture: The Chair Photos Chaney/collins Gareth Up To Benefacts Catherine Was 'extraordinary'
The Central Statistics Office has heaped praise on the recently-scrapped State-funded body Benefacts, stating the service had provided it with data which was “not otherwise available”.
Benefacts, a free-to-access database of the financial information behind Ireland’s non-profit organisations and charities, was recently wound up by the Government in controversial circumstances, with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform deeming the State’s input to be "far in excess of the quantifiable benefits derived" from the service.
However, the CSO has now said that the information provided to it by Benefacts free of charge had “addressed many of the coverage issues” of the non-profit sector and had aided the CSO in receiving positive audits from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, to which all member states must report.
In a note to the Public Accounts Committee, the CSO’s director general Pádraig Dalton said that Benefacts had “helped the CSO to fulfil important statistical reporting required under EU legislation”.
The ways in which the relationship had benefited the CSO, Mr Dalton said, included aid given in quantifying the economic value added to the State by the non-profit sector, and helping the CSO to compile statistics regarding the Government’s finances and the level of spending on health within Ireland.
“Eurostat audits... results for accuracy and comprehensiveness on behalf of the European Commission,” Mr Dalton said, adding that the EU body had noted how the information from Benefacts had “supported and streamlined decisions” by the CSO as to how Irish non-profits should be classified.
Benefacts was in receipt of €0.95m in State funding in 2021. The organisation, first established in 2014 in an era replete with scandals within the €14bn Irish non-profit sector, such as the fall from grace of suicide charity Console, was officially wound up effective from March 31, with all staff made redundant.
The decision has been branded “extraordinary” by vice chair of the PAC Catherine Murphy.
“I have to say I get angry when I think of this because it is a complete waste of public money,” Ms Murphy said.
“We had a system that was working well and was being well used. What is coming back from the CSO is explicit about the benefit.”
The PAC has now requested sight of the value-for-money review run on the service by DPER before it was recommended for closure.
The CSO, meanwhile, said that the information previously provided by Benefacts will now have to be estimated using previous figures as a proxy, a “necessarily short-term” measure, while the Department of Rural and Community Development has set up an advisory group aimed at satisfying a social enterprise data-gathering exercise, the results of which could serve to “partially replace” the Benefacts data.
That group is expected to submit its final report within the nine months.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was asked for comment regarding Mr Dalton’s comments, but had not responded at the time of publication.