Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for having to absent myself but I had to put questions in the Dáil Chamber.

I hope my questions for the witnesses have not been covered already and apologise if they have been. Everybody is trying to rebuild and go back to where we were between 2005 and 2007. I wonder if everybody is aware that we were broke then. That is the problem. We need to be careful about where we go from here and make sure we do not have another crash. If we do, unfortunately, it will be more severe than the last one. That is just a rider in the background to what I say now.

Mr. Cooper or Mr. O'Sullivan referred to the private sector and competition between it and the voluntary sector. Could they expand on how the private sector may be competing with them in the delivery of services?

To what extent are the organisations reliant on direct funding from the State versus voluntary fundraising? We need the voluntary sector and at the same time it should get a reward from the State to encourage, augment and help in the delivery of services. Could they perhaps comment on those two points first?