This report is an examination of the cumulative impact of the cuts in spending on the voluntary and community sector in Ireland over 2008-12, specifically examining their effect on employment. The voluntary and community sector had, at the start of the financial crisis in 2008, a value of €6.5bn, received about €1.89bn in state funding and employed 53,098 people (full time equivalents).

From 2008-2012, government spending on current services fell -2.82%, our benchmark. Using the government’s own figures from the budgets of 2008-2012, government funding for the voluntary and community sector has fallen by the following amounts:

• Health services, the largest funder - 4.5% to -29%
• Voluntary social housing, the next largest - 54%
• National supports -48%
• Local Community Development Programme - 35%
• Initiatives against drugs - 29%
• Family support projects - 17%
• Dormant accounts -87%