Mrs. Elizabeth Wall:

The ICA is involved in an organisation since 1957 called COFACE, a confederation of family organisations of the EU with a membership of 200 family organisations. We go to Brussels regularly every three months. We held a big conference here in Dublin two years ago. It did not get very much play on the radio and there was no coverage on RTE or in the newspapers yet we had representatives from 50 organisations from all over Europe who came to Dublin Castle for three days.

We discussed a range of issues, including health policies and many other topics that are very relevant to Ireland. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, opened the conference for us but, as I said, it did not get any air time. The message from that forum did not go out to people even though it was very packed every day and there was a lot happening, with seven or eight speakers and break-out groups discussing a range of issues and developments that are happening all over Europe. I am not sure what we could have done to attract more attention. We tried everything but what we ended up with was a missed opportunity. There was a lot of learning in it for Irish people and groups about different organisations in Europe and it could have been very helpful to people. I do not have the answer as to why it did not garner more attention.