State funding may have silenced the voluntary sector on issues such as homelessness, a prominent social researcher has alleged.
Some voluntary bodies, though well funded, are disorganised and unaccountable, Mr Eoin O'Sullivan said in an article in Administration, a journal published by the Institute of Public Administration.
Mr O'Sullivan is a lecturer in social policy in the Department of Social Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Before he took up an academic career, he worked with Father Peter McVerry, highlighting youth homelessness.
He co-authored the book Suffer the Little Children, about abuse in the care system, with Ms Mary Raftery. His research also played a key part in the States of Fear series on RTE.
The voluntary sector glosses over the fact that fewer than 20 per cent of those it employs are volunteers, Mr O'Sullivan said in the article. "The remainder are paid employees (often poorly paid)." However, the use of the term voluntary "contributes to the fundraising activities of such agencies".
At the same time the sector has had a substantial increase in State funding over the years. Mr O'Sullivan questioned whether this had affected their role "as advocates of their clients".
"A notable feature of recent years is the relative `invisibility' of voluntary/ community/non-profit agencies in publicly highlighting social issues in Irish society, such as the substantial growth in homelessness."
In these agencies "there is an increasing trend towards commercialism", he alleged, "blurring the distinction between the for-profit and non-profit sectors".
Infighting between these bodies "limits the potential of such agencies to collectively enhance the position of those they claim to be working on behalf of", he wrote. He said many of the virtues which the voluntary sector claims for itself are not special to it. The voluntary sector claims to be more creative and innovative than the State but this "ignores the considerable innovativeness in the public sector in Ireland".
Voluntary agencies have also pioneered services to promote social inclusion and equality of opportunity, he wrote. "But they have not been alone. Statutory agencies have similarly provided such services, often despite the opposition of voluntary agencies, particularly those associated with the Catholic Church."
Some voluntary agencies, he said, "are disorganised, diverse, internally hierarchical, relatively well funded, largely indistinguishable from statutory services, unaccountable to a high degree, and exceedingly powerful relative to their representation".
He added: "Some appear to claim a monopoly on caring and campaigning for the marginalised in Irish society. "If criticisms are aired of such agencies, the usual response is not to take responsibility for negative actions nor to question their role in particular areas, but to blame the State," he wrote.
The debate "is only beginning on the lack of accountability of these agencies to their funders or their clients".