Ken O’Flynn TD: “Taxpayers are funding an NGO sector while families struggle to get by”
Independent Ireland TD for Cork North-Central, Ken O’Flynn, has said newly published accounts for the Irish Refugee Council expose “a taxpayer-funded NGO industry that has built secure careers for itself while delivering no tangible benefit to the people who pay for it.”
Deputy O’Flynn said the organisation’s own audited figures show an astonishing level of public funding and a salary bill “that would not look out of place in a commercial enterprise, never mind an NGO that claims to be operating on behalf of vulnerable people.”
According to the 2024 audited accounts, the Irish Refugee Council employed 28 staff, with €1.34 million spent on pay, PRSI and pensions in a single year. The CEO received a salary of €82,910.
Deputy O’Flynn said:
“Families across Ireland are tightening their belts, pensioners are worried about heating their homes, and small businesses are fighting to survive, yet we have NGOs funded by the taxpayer paying out more than €1.3 million in wages. There are people in this country who cannot see a GP or find a home, yet the Government continues to funnel money into an industry that answers to nobody but itself.”
He said the State Funding disclosures raise further concerns. The organisation received at least €269,299 in identifiable Government and EU programme funding in 2024, including core staffing support through Pobal for senior management roles.
“Once again we see that NGOs involved in migration policy are cushioned by guaranteed State funding, year after year, with no measurable outcomes, no scrutiny and no democratic oversight,” he said. “This model breeds dependency — not for the people it claims to serve, but for the organisations themselves.”
Deputy O’Flynn said the revelations reinforce the need for a full review of how taxpayer money is distributed to NGOs involved in migration, integration and asylum policy.
“We have built an entire tier of publicly funded organisations whose existence depends on an ever-expanding asylum system,” he said. “There is no incentive for efficiency, no incentive for transparency, and no incentive for the State to take back responsibility for the services it has outsourced. Meanwhile, the taxpayer foots the bill.”
He said the focus must return to accountability and value for money.
“When €1.3 million in wages is being paid to 28 employees, when senior salaries are funded directly by the State, and when ordinary families are being asked to accept cuts, taxes and rising costs, something is deeply wrong. This is not charity. It is a publicly financed industry with no mandate and no accountability.”
Deputy O’Flynn added that Independent Ireland will be bringing forward proposals to require strict reporting, outcome-based measurement and a full audit of all State-supported NGOs operating in the migration space.
“People deserve to know where their money is going. They deserve to know whether it is doing any good. The days of handing out public money with no questions asked must end.”
