The community sector is facing a real crisis when it comes to rising insurance costs and the government is not doing enough about it.
That’s one of the main findings of a survey carried by Sligo Public Participation Network on behalf of the national PPN network.
A Public Participation Network allows local authorities to connect with community groups.
In total there were 761 responses to this national survey carried out by the Sligo PPN network into the impact of insurance costs on the community sector.
The community involvement– and therefore volunteer contribution — in these groups was highlighted by the fact that more than 70% surveyed did not have paid employees while more than half were not members of any national umbrella group.
And more than 50% of groups had a premises, such as a community centre or hall, included in their insurance.
More than 82% said the insurance premium for their community group had increased in the last three years.
Up to 10% saw increases in premiums of more than 30% with up to a fifth of respondents seeing increases of more than 20%.
Most groups, more than 34%, were paying more than €1,500 per year.
Almost 60% of respondents never took out a risk assessment of their organisation to try to reduce insurance costs but about 70% said they would be interested in training to conduct such an assessment.
A massive majority, almost 90%, think the government is not doing enough to tackle rising insurance costs.
The results of this survey can be seen by logging onto the Sligo PPN website.
