Mr. Rory Fitzgerald:

I thank the Chairman. We start off with induction so people come to a meeting, go through a process and we screen them. Believe it or not, we train ourselves. In each branch there is a training team of five or six volunteers whose role is to train two or three groups of up to 15 people a year on average, although Dublin is the exception. All the training is done in-house and is fantastic.

When I joined 11 years ago I would have considered myself as a fixer in life but we, in the Samaritans, do not give advice, which is an approach that must be knocked out of everybody. It is a great life skill to learn because when a friend asks for advice then no matter one says, whether it is right or wrong, one is doing the wrong thing. We are trained to reflect that question back to callers and say, "What do you think you should do?" thus helping them to tease out any issues.

A branch director is appointed for three years and he or she runs the branch. Of our 13 branch directors over half of them have a full-time day job so they give a huge amount. I have great admiration for them because they give another 14 or 15 hours a week to the organisation, at a minimum. The branch directors have a leadership team around them to manage different aspects. Running a branch is like a little business because there is finance and a building to manage as well as volunteers. This is very challenging because each volunteer commits to doing three hours of duty a week and a six-hour overnight every five or six weeks. It does not always happen that people will do what they are supposed to do. It is not like in the workplace where one can threaten somebody because they rely on their salary but one must work with volunteers. It is very challenging but we have great people. I have great admiration for the volunteers, particularly through Covid because we all went through the same things as everybody else, we all struggled because things were taken away from us, yet we still had to listen to people who were struggling as well. I cannot praise our volunteers highly enough. Some volunteers, outside of the branch director, have day jobs. Some volunteers are housewives, retirees or unemployed. We have all strata of society as volunteers but what they give to their fellow humans is phenomenal.

I thank Mr. Mulligan and his team. We have ten or 11 fantastic staff. Ms Stack will take calls at the weekend and at nighttime. Technically, her hours are supposed to be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. as are Mr. Mulligan's but the hours that they put in show their commitment to the organisation. I am very proud of what they do for us as well.