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The Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys has today (Thursday 7 December) launched a public consultation for the government’s second National Social Enterprise Policy for Ireland.
The main purpose of the consultation is to seek the views of all interested parties on the content of the next National Social Enterprise Policy for Ireland.
The public consultation is the final stage in a broad-ranging process of stakeholder engagement, which began last year, to support the development of the policy. The policy will underpin ongoing government action and investment to support social enterprise over its lifetime, up to 2027.
Launching the consultation Minister Humphreys said:
“I am delighted to launch this public consultation for the second National Social Enterprise Policy for Ireland. Social enterprises have an incredible potential, and play an important role in the social and economic life of this country. It is an important opportunity to further ensure that the voices of all are listened to and heard during the development of the new policy.
“Our vibrant community of over 4000 social enterprises is having a huge impact, generating income of €2.34 billion and providing jobs for 3.7% of the Irish workforce, more than two thirds of which are women. This is an extraordinary platform to build on. Our new policy will play a central role in developing their huge potential in the years to come.
“The public consultation opens from today and will run until 31 January 2024. I am encouraging all social enterprises and interested parties to feed into the consultation process.”
Social enterprises are businesses whose core objective is to achieve a social, societal, or environmental impact. Like other businesses, social enterprises pursue their objectives by trading in goods and services on an ongoing basis. However, surpluses generated by social enterprises are re-invested into achieving the core social objectives.
They frequently work to support disadvantaged groups such as the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, Travellers, or to address issues such as food poverty, social housing, or environmental matters.
In 2019 the government published the first National Social Enterprise Policy for Ireland 2019-2022, which was the first policy aimed specifically at developing and realising the potential of social enterprise. Since then there has been significant public investment to grow and strengthen social enterprise and real progress in advancing the potential, impact and awareness of the sector.
Work has been progressing on a second policy and, as with the first policy, the department is adopting a partnership approach to its development. Ongoing communications, engagement, and consultations with stakeholders (internal and external) are a key principle throughout its development. This has included six regional ‘town hall’ type consultation events, receipt of written submissions from stakeholders, and bilateral meetings between the department and a broad variety of stakeholders, including social enterprises, representative organisations, public bodies, and government departments. Following the public consultation stage, it is planned to publish the policy following government approval in Q1 2024.
The public consultation is open from 7 December 2023 to 31 January 2024. The consultation paper is structured around five thematic objectives which have been selected for the policy, informed by experience gained in the period since the first policy was introduced, feedback received from stakeholder engagement and consultation, the evidence base provided by a 2023 Baseline Data Collection Exercise on Social Enterprise, and recent recommendations of an OECD review commissioned by DRCD and a NESC review of social enterprise in Ireland.
These are: