Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the presentations, particularly that from The Wheel. One of the values of having an umbrella organisation like The Wheel is that everyone in the community and voluntary sector must be involved in that day-to-day nitty-gritty and grind but The Wheel is taking a big picture view. That is essential. One of the things the pandemic has done is made us take stock and take a step back, particularly in terms of transport. As Senator Wall said, during the pandemic many people including me turned to their gardens, if they were lucky enough to have one, and began to reprioritise within their own lives and think again about how they wanted to live those lives.

As we begin to move past the Covid pandemic and to issues like climate change and biodiversity breakdown, the community and voluntary sector and structures like the public participation networks, PPNs, will be increasingly important in the discussion about how we remake and rebuild our society, reset our priorities and make progress on these huge challenges in a way that brings everybody with us. There is a huge role for the community and voluntary sector in that, in line with other community structures. In that idea of social dialogue and how we reinitiate the conversation about the Republic we live in, the community and voluntary sector has a central role. I find it exciting to hear The Wheel take that big picture overview, as well as dealing with the small issues that make the everyday process more difficult, the stone in the shoe.

I have stone-in-the-shoe questions for representatives of The Wheel. Compliance has been raised before and I will not ask a question about it, but I note it. It is a recurring issue when one talks to anybody in the community and voluntary sector. It is so difficult to fundraise for it and to stand on the street seeking funding for it. We are rejecting the word "overheads" but it is a difficult sell to people when one is standing on the side of the street.

The charity VAT compensation scheme is a three-year pilot which is coming to the end. I ask The Wheel about that with a view to the report this committee will produce at the end of this process.

I ask The Wheel, and I will come back with questions for Community Gardens Ireland if I can, about the recommendation about mergers and collaborative working in the sector. I want to allow The Wheel space to dig into that. What will it mean to have mergers and collaborative working in place? Will it reduce compliance costs, increase efficiencies and move people on to the type of work they want to do, as opposed to the type of work they find themselves having to do?