Mr. Ivan Cooper:

I will add to some of Ms Finlay's points and to pick up on the Chairman's point at the start of this contribution, it is fundamentally about bringing people together. That is what these thousands of community and voluntary organisations do. On functioning at the European level, some of the committee's questions concern the level of awareness of matters Irish and mutual understandings on such issues. There is a certain part of Ireland and of Irish civil society that are well connected into European networks with long-established pathways and people who are, so to speak, in the system. It requires a major investment of time, energy, effort and commitment over time, however, to maintain that kind of a capability and most community and voluntary organisations do not have the wherewithal to do that.

There are many networks, such as the European Economic and Social Committee and other forums where civil society can participate in European policymaking. Some organisations that participate have good networks out there but it is the sustaining of that engagement at local and community level, in the day-to-day work communities do, which is the nut we have to crack. We somehow must get beyond what can become rarefied networks and make the European experience something that is understood as being more relevant in people's and communities' day-to-day lives. That is a big challenge for us. Let us not forget that when we talk about Brexit, it is not that long ago when we had our own referendums here in Ireland on the deepening of involvement in Europe. As we know the challenges that this posed, we cannot take anything for granted and we have to keep on challenging some of these populist sentiments that exist.

I will conclude with three points. Everybody in this room will acknowledge we face huge global challenges on climate change, sustainable energy and food production, the use of plastics and so on. These require transnational, European and global solutions. It is more important than ever that we go the extra mile to engage communities in European policymaking at that level.

I have mentioned the obstacles that exist and they have been heard loud and clear as they relate to the costs, the matching funding, the ring-fencing, the simplification of processes and the forum we are proposing. This would greatly help us in The Wheel and civil society to coalesce and build on the strong relationships with MEPs, with the European Parliament and the institutions generally. Again, fantastic work is being done in the Council of Europe but the point is we must somehow find a way to energise the thousands of organisations in the community and voluntary sectors and connect them directly to such work in a more practical fashion. If we could do that it would be truly revolutionary.