Dr. Senan Cooke:

I thank the joint committee for inviting us and giving me the opportunity to make a few comments on what we consider to be an enterprising community. We have hundreds, if not thousands, of enterprising communities throughout the country. There is a different picture in the country distinct from what the media state. Much of what is said is true. Communities have suffered grievous damage, but most of the communities I have visited are very strong in their determination to recover and become even more prosperous than before.

The enterprising community is a socio-cultural economic ecosystem which is very important. I have evidence from all of the statements which I will go through quickly, but I do not have time to present it. Our understanding is the enterprising community is a problem solver, a wealth creator and an organiser that shapes values, character, attitude and respect. It is the most fundamental institution in the country. It shares responsibility for services and facilities. Families, schools and clubs want the best for themselves and their children and are prepared to work for it. Problems are solved or prevented at source. Social enterprises address many needs and opportunities.

I will use Dunhill Fenor Boatstrand Annestown, DFBA, Community Enterprises as a case study. It is only one of thousands and I acknowledge that there are others better than ours. I have been to them and spoken to the people involved. I am using our community enterprise as an example because it is the one I know best.

It was established in 1993 when there were four communities in the parish. There was a Church of Ireland village, a fishing harbour and two internal agricultural communities.

There were three reasons for the start-up, one being that each of the two parts of the parish - Dunhill and Fenor - had lost a teacher. The school in Dunhill went from having four teachers to three, while the school in Fenor went from having three teachers to two. After the 1980s there was a declining population. Emigration had reached a high in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. There was a lot of uncertainty at the time, much like it is today. A key factor was the setting up of the LEADER partnerships, the county enterprise boards and community employment schemes. That was fundamental. It is coincidental that I am sitting here with three people involved in the LEADER partnerships. The LEADER partnership was fundamental to us because it was the most prominent group to assist us in setting up in 1993.

Another key aspect was that in 1989 the local GAA club had built an indoor complex for IR£350,000. It cleared all of the debt within a few years by voluntary fundraising. Looking at what had happened, within the parish a realisation dawned that there was a new capacity within it and the question was asked whether it could be used to deal with other important aspects such as job creation and schools. Even though I am an avowed GAA person, I make the point that GAA clubs are representative, competitive, fearless and caring, as one can see at funerals or when there is a crisis in a parish. The GAA is much more than a sports organisation. I hope that after a number of things that happened recently, including the event at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, people who have a different view understand what they are dealing with and how precious it is to the country.

As a result of the initiatives taken, the school in Dunhill has gone from having three staff members to nine, while the school in Fenor has gone from having two staff members to 17. There was a special reason for this, but I was advised not to go into too much detail in this part of my presentation and that members could ask questions later.

The population of the area has grown by 25% since 1993. Some 250 jobs were created in the Dunhill Enterprise Centre since it was set up in 2000. Currently there are 36 enterprises, with 75 jobs, in the centre. We have achieved international recognition through Copper Coast, the only voluntary European Union and UNESCO global geopark in the world. There are integrated constructed wetlands. RTÉ's "Ear to the Ground" programme is spending all of today in the Dunhill wetlands. There are also Fenor Bog and Dunhill Castle, the home of the Power clan. The first Baron of Dunhill was Robert Le Poher in 1174. There are also connections between Ireland and Newfoundland. There is a special relationship between the south east - Waterford, Kilkenny, Wexford and south Tipperary - and Newfoundland and last August 80 Newfoundlanders visited the area.

All of the results outlined have been achieved mainly against the odds, for example, during the financial crisis. There is no broadband in the area. We are expecting it to be provided within weeks, but we have been expecting it for the last year. Currently we are within the blue area and hopeful and praying it will come our way.

The available supports are fragmented all over the place. Nobody in this world can tell us or explain what supports are available for social enterprise because they are many and so varied. Social enterprise has not yet captured the recognition of the Government, but we are hopeful it will shortly. In my understanding of communities there has always been huge emphasis on tackling disadvantage. I have no issue with this at all, but I do have a big issue when the provision of resources is ignored for communities that want to contribute. We set up a social enterprise, of which I was chairman, in a most difficult part of County Waterford in Ballybeg. I do not make any point about the allocation of resources other than it tends to be consumed by people trying to make up stories to claim disadvantage. It was a disastrous approach to it.

I shall turn to Communities Creating Jobs which we set up in 2011. We held three conferences in Dunhill, which were packed out. People came from everywhere to them. We said they would have to work together and it is now a national voluntary shared learning network. It shares ideas, problems, solutions and resources. It also helps communities to avoid mistakes, waste, duplication and displacement. It identifies better ways and activates dormant resources. It provides scaffolding and tools for communities that are starting off and gives them examples. It simplifies complex documents and criteria and tries to help in removing barriers, difficult though that may be. We also try to develop new pathways to success. While we have been successful, we have not received support or recognition, which is a pity when one sees so many communities throughout the State that are working together and prepared to work together but cannot receive support.

Cumasú 22 is a jobs model we have developed. The word "Cumasú" means empowerment. The year 2022 will mark the centenary of the first Government. We would like all of our communities to be able to look back over that 100 years and state, "We had ups and downs but look at where we are now." We believe that can happen. Cumasú 22 is made up of Communities Creating Jobs, the GAA and the third level education consortium. Our starting point is a target of creating ten jobs in every community. We have a local task group and a facilitator who has been given a six-month timeline to come up with all of the assets, enterprises and opportunities in the location. That work is not to be interfered with by any agency. They must be left alone to figure it out for themselves and say things to themselves that cannot be said when there is anyone else there and that includes Communities Creating Jobs. We set the framework for them. We have completed the first stage of an assets and opportunities audit report and it was all done voluntarily. When we went to the GAA, it told us that there were three things it wanted from us. That suited us down to the ground. It wanted this initiative to be voluntary and community based. It did not want any of the current officers to be involved because it wanted to leave them working for their clubs. We were told that we could accept help from all previous officers, other business supporters and so on. The second stage involves engaging with the relevant agencies to create jobs. It is about three things - job creation, empowerment and the capacity building process. I hope I have got that point across.

Above anything else, families are concerned. It is a democratic imperative that the State be seen to partner with communities in regeneration projects, including in the areas of education, employment creation and housing. In a parish local to me but in another county the postman has helped to identify 80 empty houses. Nobody can understand why something is not being done. The idea is to empower communities to use their social capital to build capacity, prosperity from ground up and engage people. People believe they are the helpless victims of the recession and austerity measures when they should be active participants in changing the whole thing. The idea is to solve and prevent problems at source and rebalance the population and the economy with the assistance of IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and social enterprise. To ensure we will not repeat what has happened in the United Kingdom or the United States of America, the process also aims to build respect between the institutions of the State, the political system and the communities in which people live. It can be done this way.

I have ten recommendations that I will outline for the committee. I recommend that the new social enterprise policy and implementation plan be facilitated from January 2019. I ask all parties to back the plan. Surely there can be no division between any party on it. I suggest State, community and private supports be identified through the Department of Community and Rural Development. If the Department looks to identify and describe all of the different resources available, it will know the extent of what is possible in communities.

I recommend a Cumasú 22 pilot project in the south east. We had a pilot project in County Galway and it was a great success, but, unfortunately, Mr. Joe McDonagh died. He had been leading the initiative. We want to have a second pilot project in the south east where we could have some influence over it to make sure it would work.

Another recommendation is alleviating community enterprise centre debt. I have spoken to Enterprise Ireland and the National Association of Community Enterprise Centres as a number of community enterprise centres ran into difficulty during the financial crisis, but unlike private companies, they refused to give up and leave the debt unpaid. Ours is one of them. To this day we have never not paid our way. However, we have a debt problem. While it is not too serious and we are able to handle it, to give us a chance, we need support, as do other centres throughout the country. I recommend that all parties include a reference to social enterprise in their manifesto or programme for Government for the next election.

Another recommendation is access to fibre broadband countrywide. I cannot tell members how many jobs and businesses we have lost because of the lack of it. Our education centre wants to become a digital education centre and those involved in it are crying on my shoulder every day. When I go there tomorrow, they will be after me again and want to know if there is any news on the provision of fibre broadband. We are in the blue area and have been told that we will have it within a few weeks.

I recommend that EU funds for social enterprise be maximised. Mr. Barroso and Mr. Barnier established the business initiative in 2011. They established a €100 million fund for social enterprise.

We have heard nothing about it since but they are big people in the EU and they are completely in favour of social enterprise. We ask the Government to get onto committees. We know it is thinking of getting onto some of the committees it is not on, or it is willing to get on them.

I refer to a pilot social enterprise project in the North of Ireland where six communities in Waterford were involved with six communities in Antrim. We spent three years with them. The most telling statement came from a very strong woman, Angela Hayden, a nationalist and a superb person. She said what she most got out of the project was the capacity to talk with her Protestant neighbours in a collaborative session. The focus was not that she could talk to us down in Waterford, albeit she appreciated that, or that she could talk to other nationalists in the North of Ireland, but that she could talk to people she had never spoken to before in that setting. The other thing we want is the opportunity to export to the North of Ireland.

I refer to credit unions. We know our own credit unions. Our own money is all tied up. There is lots of money available. While there are difficulties with the Central Bank and on the policy side, we ask if they would do something for the Irish League of Credit Unions.

I hope people will purchase and promote the The Enterprising Communityeverywhere they can. The book will open eyes. There will be European elections next year and the members of the committee will be down around the south east. I invite every member to come to Dunhill and I will spend two hours showing them around until I have persuaded them of the huge potential of social enterprise. It is a billion euro business or sector. It is not a small thing where great volunteers are doing great work. This is a billion euro business which includes universities, credit unions and a lot of things people do not associate with it.