Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 March 2025
94. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the progress of developing a national funding platform to provide a verified source of the funding provided to third sector organisations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14101/25]
View answerIn May 2021, Pobal conducted a scoping exercise on the potential for a National Funding Platform of community and voluntary organisations which have a funding relationship with the State.
The overarching purpose of the scoping exercise was to explore options for a funding platform that would reduce the administrative burden on grantees and funders, as well as providing a single source of truth regarding community and voluntary sector recipients of state funding, and the nature of the funding that they received. The scoping exercise for the project has been completed and remains under consideration. In that context, my officials have been engaging with colleagues in a range of other Government Departments and State agencies.
It should be noted that any decision to move forward with what would be a significant ICT Development project that could, inter alia , draw data from across Government on a significant number of schemes, programmes, recipients and payments, would require a whole of Government approach. Such an exercise would require Government approval and would also be subject to the conditions set out in the public spending code.
