Let the people map 📲 🗺️ 🌍🌱🫡

A reminder of the state of public data and transparency in Ireland: Charities Regulator: Messy datasets, massive errors, missing financial reports and poor classification. Nobody can reliably tell you how much public money the nonprofit sector receives. Public consultations: The gov.ie consultations portal is supposed to be a central register, yet consultations are still scattered across government departments, state agencies and regulators. No clear evidence that they're all included, so citizens miss them. State spending: No single, consistent supplier ID across government departments. Spending data is fragmented, making it incredibly difficult to track how much public money individual organisations receive. Local authorities: Endless strategies, development plans and action plans, but no systematic measurement of delivery. Housing, infrastructure, public services, you name it. What was promised versus what was actually delivered? And these are the institutions constantly talking about transparency, accountability, open government and public participation. Many such cases.

The top 152 nonprofits ( NGOs?) received €3.69 BILLION in public funding in Ireland in 2024. I've spent months analysing the financial returns of thousands of organisations registered with the Charities Regulator, trying to establish how much public money flows into Ireland's nonprofit sector, where it goes, and how concentrated that funding actually is. Within my research population of 2,634 organisations, primarily across health, social services, housing and local development, I identified approximately €4.98 billion in reported public funding for 2024. But here's the striking part. Just 152 organisations received €3.69 billion of that money. That's 5.8% of the organisations accounting for 74% of the public funding within my research population. The remaining 2,482 organisations shared approximately €1.29 billion. Those 152 organisations break down as follows: 62 in Social Services 60 in Housing & Local Development 30 in Health And the concentration goes further. Of the 2,634 organisations, just 1,671 received €100,000 or more in public funding. Those organisations accounted for approximately 99.4% of the total. This is where our public discussion about "charities" and "NGOs" becomes completely confused. We routinely talk about Ireland's thousands of registered charities as though they're one homogeneous sector. They're not. The register contains everything from tiny volunteer-run community organisations to enormous, professionally managed service providers receiving tens or hundreds of millions of euro annually. Some provide essential disability, housing, healthcare and social services on behalf of the State. Others are community groups, representative organisations or advocacy bodies. These are fundamentally different types of organisations, operating at completely different scales, but they're all thrown into the same administrative category of "charity". An important caveat about my figures. This is NOT a comprehensive analysis of every nonprofit, community organisation or publicly funded group in Ireland. There are thousands of organisations outside my research population, including small community groups, sports clubs, voluntary associations, organisations that aren't registered charities, and entire sectors I've deliberately excluded. The actual number of organisations operating across Ireland's wider nonprofit, voluntary and community sector is considerably larger. My research deliberately focuses on a few core areas, particularly organisations involved in delivering publicly funded services. Another important point: this is 2024 data. We're approaching the end of 2026, so these figures are already almost two years old. If public funding has increased by 5% or 10% since then, the €4.98 billion identified in my research population could now be approximately €5.23 billion to €5.48 billion. That's an illustration, not a verified 2026 figure. And remember, that still wouldn't represent total public funding across Ireland's entire nonprofit and community sector. I've also encountered serious problems with the underlying Charities Regulator data, including missing financial reports and obvious reporting errors. 152 organisations. €3.69 billion. 74% of the public funding within my research population. And I've had to spend months assembling, cleaning and classifying government data just to establish these basic facts.