Ms Catherine Heaney:

The measures I undertook in my business would only have been called corporate social responsibly in the past ten years. Before that, they were what we did because we felt we had a responsibility to the community outside our door. I have a responsibility to the people who come in, work and drive the business every single day. They became important drivers for my business. As Deputy Neville said, one-person shows sponsor football teams and help at coffee mornings for Alzheimer's disease and so on. So much of that goes on. Our communities drive that and businesses are part of the community. We are all parents and people who are getting on with our daily lives and doing our best. We bring that to business.

I recall having a personal tension about calling what we were doing CSR. The first time we called it CSR was when we entered the Chambers Ireland Corporate Social Responsibility Awards because we did a lot of significant work in bringing probonocases and other issues we worked on. We felt it would be nice to get some acknowledgement. When we entered and won an award, I was slightly uncomfortable, but I have grown to accept that it is a very genuine practice. When I am sitting in a room with 40 people who will send an email at 10 p.m. to tell me they will do something, I know that is instinctive. It is something to be positively welcomed in business.

I read a lot about greenwashing, which is interesting. I have learned not to be so cynical. We have come on a journey and CSR is respected. It took until 2011 for the EU to have a CSR strategy. It is now recognised as being important for competitive advantage as well as for businesses to be more resilient and aware of stakeholders. There is a suggestion that businesses have suddenly started to prioritise stakeholders over profit and that stakeholders are now the drivers. I am a lot more comfortable with that business model, which is fairer, more resilient and better.