Referendum shows it’s time to let NGOs sink or swim

Taxpayer-funded lobbyists have had far too much influence for too long, writes Michael Kelly

One of the standout moments for me in the national count centre in Dublin Castle on Saturday afternoon was a brief exchange between Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín.

The referendum result hadn’t been called yet, but the mood music from early morning was indicating that the Government’s proposals were going up in smoke.

At the castle Mr Tóibín came darting down the staircase, smiling from ear-to-ear as he finished a phone call evidently bringing more good news from a local count centre.

As he reached the bottom of the staircase, he noticed the Taoiseach huddled in a corner with his kitchen cabinet.

His glee uncontainable, Mr Tóibín went right to the heart of the gathering and extended his hand saying, “hard luck, Taoiseach”. Mr Varadkar congratulated the leader of the winning side with a pained smile.

Priorities

An hour or so later, I was at the top of the same staircase with barrister Maria Steen – who so comprehensively defeated Tánaiste Micheál Martin in one of the last debates in the campaign – when the hierarchy of the National Women’s Council of Ireland arrived.

Maria warmly smiled a greeting as Orla O’Connor and her disciples passed by, but there wasn’t even a side glance from the funereal procession of long faces.

You have good days and bad days in politics, and for those considered outsiders by the political Establishment like Deputy Tóibín and Mrs Steen Saturday was a good day.

And it was an extremely bad day for Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin, and an even worse day for Ms O’Connor, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and the hugely bloated NGO sector that threw its considerable weight behind the referendum campaign.

The message doesn’t seem to have been lost on the Government. Minister of State Peter Burke was on RTÉ radio on Saturday afternoon saying that his Fine Gael party was going to have to see just how in-touch with ordinary people the NGOs they had listened to on this campaign are.

Start listening to the people, stop talking down to them and stop listening to the out of touch Greensand NGOs”

Fianna Fáil veteran Willie O’Dea went further, taking to social media to insist that his fellow Soldiers of Destiny need “to get back to basics and abandon the Hate Speech Bill etc. Focus on housing, health and law and order and stop playing to the woke gallery.

“Start listening to the people, stop talking down to them and stop listening to the out of touch Greens and NGOs,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

Will it have an effect on the body politic? Well, only time will tell. But it’s certainly heartening that a long-overdue debate has begun about the role and influence of non-governmental organisations and lobbyists on Government policy.

According to the most recent figures, a staggering 164,922 people in Ireland are employed by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a combined turnover of €13.9 billion. Some €6.2 billion of that comes from the taxpayer.

To put that in perspective, NGOs – lobby groups, advocacy organisations and charities – employ roughly the same number of people as the agri-food sector in Ireland.

The Government spends almost as much public money funding NGOs as it does on housing, and more than the budgets of the Department for Justice and the Department for Transport combined.

Some NGOs provide invaluable services in the international aid sphere or in disability services, and the State funding they receive has a real impact on people’s lives.

But many NGOs are little more than well-oiled lobby groups that spend their days at taxpayers’ expense meeting politicians and senior civil servants to try to influence policy and social change without any democratic scrutiny.

Re-evaluation

There needs to be a full and immediate review of the funding and relevance of NGOs and their highly-paid executives. If these bodies are so important, why can’t they raise funds from the public for their survival rather than nursing off the taxpayers?

NGOs and lobby groups have had far too much influence over our Government for too long. Most of them should be defunded.

This is, perhaps, one of the reasons why the Government was content to railroad the family and care referendums through the Dáil and Seanad.

Both proposals were accepted by every political party except Aontú without the basic pre-legislative meetings that are normal where TDs and senators can question experts on the proposed laws.

So confident in the proposals was the Government that it even side-stepped normal Oireachtas procedures and forced the legislation through without debate in a rarely-used process known as guillotining.

For the Government, these referenda were a done deal, but on the day the people wrecked everything and stole from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar a valuable moment to prove to the world that he is modern.

That’s also why International Women’s Day was chosen and the upper courtyard at Dublin Castle prepared for the repeal-like victory celebrations.

But it wasn’t to be, and the spin doctors of this out-of-touch Government turned to nightmares.

Picture the scene as I arrived at Dublin Castle on Saturday. There were dozens of gardaí there to greet the few bewildered tourists who were set on visiting the former stronghold of British rule in Ireland.

I made my way in to the heavily-fortified count centre, and the security guard on duty seemed pleased at my arrival since opening the gate gave him something to do and momentarily eased his boredom. “It’s the quietest I’ve ever seen,” a cleaner inside told me.

Peadar Tóibín cut a confident figure in contrast to the grim long faces of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party, Sinn Féin, Labour the Social Democrats and People Before Profit.

Mainstream parties are hurting, and they don’t like being challenged”

Without friends in the media or any State funding, his Aontú party had spearheaded this David and Goliath effort and succeeded against the might of the entire political establishment.

Of course, it will suit the media to hand the victory to Independent Senator Michael McDowell who, sitting on a university senate seat, poses no threat to the current order.

Aontú on the other hand will be running candidates going up against establishment parties in every corner of the country.

Mainstream parties are hurting, and they don’t like being challenged – expect attacks on Aontú to intensify.

Many NGOs are little more than well-oiled lobby groups that spend their days at taxpayers’ expense meeting politicians and senior civil servants to try to influence policy and social change without any democratic scrutiny”