12 New Charities Registered In Wicklow Last Year As National Concerns Rise By 38%

Twelve new charities were registered in Wicklow in 2025, bringing the total number of charities in the county to 338, according to the Charities Regulator's newly published annual report.

The figures form part of a wider national report, which shows a sharp rise in concerns being raised about charities across Ireland.

The Regulator received 681 concerns in 2025, up 38% on the 493 recorded the previous year, and above the five-year average of 603.

Governance issues remain the most common problem flagged, making up almost 40% of all concerns.

These included cases of individuals in CEO, Chair or Founder roles exercising excessive control over a charity, trustees being denied financial information they'd requested, and trustees failing to properly oversee how their charity was run.

Charities Regulator Chief Executive Madeleine Delaney said the overall rise in concerns wasn't a major cause for alarm, but the pattern of governance problems was.

She said it tended to be seen most often in older charities that were automatically registered when the Regulator was set up in 2016, rather than those that have gone through the formal registration process since.

Minister of State for Community Development and Charities, Jerry Buttimer T.D., welcomed the report, saying the rise in concerns being raised was "a positive sign that the public are aware of the work of the Regulator."

He said it was vital that those running charities understood their responsibilities under the Charities Act.

Nationally, 212 new charities were registered in 2025, bringing the total in Ireland to 11,466, while 170 were deregistered — mostly for failing to file annual reports.

Twenty charities were struck off the Register for this reason, with two prosecuted.

The public can check the status of any Irish charity for free at checkacharity.ie, a service that saw a record 363,436 searches last year.