Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that we need to encourage and grow the volunteering spirit. There is a strong record of volunteering. We want to ensure that young people also get involved and volunteering is not left to a certain cohort. There are volunteer centres in the majority of counties and there are a number of volunteer information centres. They match volunteers who have particular skills with organisations which are seeking volunteers. I am aware from work with the Galway Volunteer Centre that approximately 12,000 people have signed up as members in the past ten years. Funding from the Department covers the costs of offices, websites and other facilities that allow people to engage with volunteer centres. That work is extremely important. The figure I cited does not account for people who directly volunteer.

We want to encourage volunteering. We have a pilot programme in three volunteer centres in Galway, south Dublin and Dublin to train trustees about their responsibilities. We will assess the programme at the end of the year to see if it can be rolled out nationwide. We also have a budget line for volunteering. We will continue to support Volunteer Ireland, Young Social Innovators, the volunteer centres and the volunteer information centres. We will also expand budgets where we can, subject to approval. We acknowledge that these organisations do important work in supporting volunteering. This is National Volunteering Week. Various programmes and events are taking place across the country and that is to be welcomed.