Ms Loretta Glucksman:

As I listened to my colleagues, their comments reinforced the subtle but very important difference in our roles. We do very similar things but from different starting points. The Ireland Fund is a philanthropy. What the other organisations do so well, every day, on the ground is charity. They deliver the product that we try to fund on the ground. They are the people who face this cliff. Mr. Flannery is right when he said that might sound cliched. However, if one is in that position then it is pretty scary. People will have depended on you for child care for autistic kids or whatever for all of these years and its awful to tell them that the funding is gone. We, the Ireland Fund, are the philanthropic source of the funds that these people use to do their amazingly essential work.

Deputy O'Donnell mentioned Northern Ireland in his question.