In May 2008 our organisation changed its name from the Environmental (Ecological) NGO’s Core Funding Ltd (EENGOCF) to the Irish Environmental Network.

Over the years, the environmental sector within Ireland has been very poorly funded when compared with other cultural and social sectors of the nation which are well endowed from the public purse. In fact the environmental sector received no core funding grants from government sources prior to 2001.

In that year, following the setting up of EENGOCF, a joint initiative between the government and a number of environmental organizations, the first successful application for core funding was made to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government. This yielded a small amount to each applicant organisation to help sustain their individual activities thus establishing the main purpose and focus of EENGOCF.

In 2004 the Department provided grant aid totalling €185,000, which met just 5% of the annual running costs of these organizations. The level of grant aid received from the Department was reduced to €180,000 in 2005 and an application has been made for increased funding in 2006.

The value of the Environmental and Ecological Non-Government Sector in Ireland is immense. Over a quarter of a million unpaid hours are invested every year by ordinary citizens with extra-ordinary vision and unending enthusiasm in caring for the environmental sustainability and ecological regeneration of our nation. These people, all with widespread expertise and experience, are members of various different organizations which have a mandated responsibility to protect much of our natural heritage both in the past, for the present and into the future.

Our member organizations play different but equally important roles in environmental development and protection, providing specific expertise within their focus areas and offering a variety of skills through their members for the benefit and future safeguarding of the nation’s biodiversity. They make a difference to the local environment through active research, conservation and protection programmes. They encourage the current decision makers to take care of our natural resources through advocacy, planning and submissions to Government Policy. They help educate the decision makers of the future through an array of individual education and awareness programmes and they work together through liaison and co-operation in order to become ever more effective in ecological and environmental protection.

The areas of interest and the size of the organizations involved in this sector are varied and diverse – from small and narrowly focused groups through to large and wide-ranging organisations representing thousands of members, and from groups concentrating on the conservation of specific aspects of our natural environment to groups addressing broad environmental sustainability into the future. Nevertheless, all organizations share a common mission to engage in initiatives which protect the environment and to increase public awareness of the need for this protection

However, the Environmental and Ecological NGO sector is chronically under-funded. Most organizations scrape by, relying on the financial support of individuals through membership subscriptions and donations in order to exist.

Significant additional funding is needed to help pay the recurring and inevitable costs of running and managing these organisations to ensure that each one can continue to carry out its primary role in the conservation and protection of Ireland’s environment. Without such funding, many of these organizations may cease to exist, and the vast wealth of environmental expertise and experience which they offer as a resource to the nation will be lost.