Clann Credo – The Social Investment Fund has been in communication with both Fine Gael and the Labour Party since the general election, providing input on issues relating social finance and social enterprise.
The new Programme for Government contains a number of welcome proposals:
Social Enterprise
The new government has committed to promoting “the development of a vibrant and effective social enterprise sector.” It has undertaken to “instruct State agencies to view social enterprises as important stakeholders in rejuvenating local economies.” The Government will also “continue support for social innovation projects for young people through education and community and voluntary structures.”
Paul O’Sullivan, CEO of Clann Credo - the Social Investment Fund said: “It is encouraging to see that the new Government has committed itself to implementing some of the key recommendations of the Social Enterprise Task Force, which was an initiative of Clann Credo and the Dublin Employment Pact.”
The new government is also undertaken to promote “a greater appreciation of the co-operative model as a distinct form of organisation, ensure a level playing field between co-operatives and the other legal options for structuring enterprise activities, and provide a conductive framework for the full potential of the co-operative model to be realised, including in areas such as childcare, education, housing, energy retrofitting, environmental protection, transport and healthcare.”
Social Finance
The new Government has committed to “establishing a new model of financing social interventions (called Social Impact Bonds) that share audited exchequer savings with charitable and voluntary organisations.”
Mr O’Sullivan said: “This is an area that we been working on for some time now with other partners to see if they can be deployed in an Irish context to advance social justice and enhance our societies’ capacity to fund effective evidenced based early interventions.
“Clann Credo - the Social Investment Fund will continue to work with Government to assist it in implementing these commitments that have the potential to make a significant contribution to Ireland’s recovery, and will benefit the development of a sustainable and thriving social finance and social enterprise sectors.”