It just occurred to me that a lot of people here might have no idea about this.
I have it all checked out, hard-evidenced and published for weeks.
https://the-beacon.ie/2025/10/09/the-gaas-game-changer-is-just-more-of-the-same/
Whenever I have seen ads etc like this crop up in the past I assumed it was corporate PR - the GAA currently have ads running with AIB (I think) at least on YouTube, OR that a wealthy sporting body was funding a community service campaign.
I assumed this was the case with “Gamechanger” at first, and my only problem was that Ruhama was a less than optimal choice of partner for the specific campaign.
However, “Gamechanger” has been allocated €1million over 4 years of DSGBV funding through Cuan the new DSGBV agency. This was not a windfall allocation, Ruhama spent months lobbying for it and little to no time lobbying for funding for service users
Leaving aside my own issues with Ruhama for a minute (because I don’t think we need them) how many women, with children, are stuck in situations of dangerous abuse simply because they cannot get the money together to leave?
Ruhama routinely get, by far, the largest allocation of victim support funding from the Department of Justice (details and links to evidence in the article), over actual shelters, never mind anything else. Drill down and the allocation to Ruhama always seems to relate to “awareness raising” - which is fast becoming a kind of “code” for PR, usually farmed out to agencies and consultants.
Meanwhile Ruhama spent €71,799 on service users in 2024 which was LESS than €77,806 they spent in 2023.
Those are not even the most shocking figures.
The same government only allocated a €1 million budget for implementation of the entire National Referral Mechanism for trafficking and a measly €700,000 for the 4 year National Action plan for sex and labor trafficking, with specific measures for children.
Anyway, that’s the story and those are the facts, for whatever you want to take away from them.