Key Strategies & Legislation

For many years, charities, community and voluntary organisation and social enterprises urged Government to produce a comprehensive development strategy for the sector that is underpinned by a sustainable funding model.

Department of Rural and Community Development, and the Gaeltacht (DRCD) Strategies

In 2019, we strongly welcomed the Department for Rural and Community Development’s (DRCD) suite of three strategies for the sector:

While these strategies represent significant progress towards a cohesive approach to working in partnership with the community and voluntary sector, there is still a lack of adequate resourcing to achieve their stated aims. Similarly, these strategies require meaningful cross-governmental support and implementation.  We believe that these strategies if realised will greatly assist the sector to increase the immense social and economic value created by community and voluntary, organisations, charities and social enterprises across Irish society.

The new Five-Year Strategy represents an opportunity for meaningful integration of the DRCD strategies across the rest of Government.

EU Strategy for Civil Society

Strategies at European level can also have an impact on our members. In 2025, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted a landmark opinion calling for a comprehensive EU strategy to support, protect and empower civil society.

The EU Strategy for Civil Society was published in 2025 and provides a blueprint for a more structured, inclusive and resilient civil dialogue framework across the EU. We made a submission on the draft Strategy, raising a number of issues relevant to the Irish context.  The Strategy was broadly welcomed by civil society organisations across Europe, and viewed as recognition of the vital role played by civil society in the face of increasing threats and shrinking space for dialogue.

At The Wheel, we make regular submissions and work alongside government to ensure that strategies in a range of policy are co-designed by the community and voluntary sector, who hold significant expertise. While strategies are vital to the development of effective policy, it is
important that

  • Meaningful co-design with organisations delivering services and supports, or with advocacy expertise in this area takes place
  • Strategies are adequately resourced and implemented across government departments
  • Independent reviews are undertaken when strategies fail to achieve their aims and objectives.

Other important strategies

At The Wheel, we also make submissions and engage on the development of other important strategies or pieces of legislation that impact our members. In recent years, these have included a significant submission on the Charities Amendment Act , the Cooperatives Bill , the Sustainable Development Goals, the National Public Procurement Strategy and the Roadmap for Social Inclusion .

We also put in submissions on specific areas of policy that impact the community and voluntary sector and the people they serve, such as housing, health, anti-poverty, equality and climate crisis. All our submissions can be found here
.

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