Ms Loretta Glucksman:

That was well said. Just a few weeks ago, the Ireland Funds had its international conference. We had primarily Americans but also Australians and Canadians. There were more than 250 delegates and we took them to see the projects that are run. There is no greater motivator for getting people involved than to see the product of what happens in daily lives.

To return to a point that was made earlier, the person whose child is no longer going to get help for special needs or the person whose elderly parents will not have access to hospice care will not care about the technicality of who stopped the money. They simply know it is no longer available.

They depend on the Government or somebody else to provide it. In that respect philanthropy in Ireland has to get much more sophisticated. As a practitioner I can say that one cannot duplicate the satisfaction from an investment. Regardless of how rewarding it is one will never get the satisfaction from any other investment than one gets from a philanthropic investment. Anyone we talk to in that regard will say that. Even though he does not like to say it publicly, Chuck Feeney is eloquent on that being the payback. It is not getting days, so to speak, or doing whatever else we have to do because we are faced with this crisis. It is the intrinsic value of helping the society one cares about. It is not nuclear science. It is very basic.

The Irish people are extraordinarily generous. They are also extraordinarily intuitive. This is not a learning curve. All we need to institute in Ireland is a workable format where Government philanthropists in the private sector are seen as equal partners acting for the common good. That is easy. The Irish people will get that. It will take a little time, but it will build. I thank the members for the privilege of being here. It was a unique experience for me and I was delighted I was able to attend.