Mr. Seamus Mulconry:

Philanthropy Ireland has a four-point strategy to achieve that. The first is a national giving campaign, the 1% difference campaign, which is up and running. We are encouraging everybody in Ireland to give 1% of their time or money to a cause they care about. We have about 570 charities signed up to that. The Deputy may have seen the advertising and PR around it in recent weeks. We are half way through that campaign. It is difficult at this stage to measure how much impact we are having. The reception so far has been positive and the charities are engaged.

The second strategy is a social innovation fund. The fund is designed to try to address the fact that somewhere between €50 million and €60 million in philanthropic funding will leave the sector in the coming years as the two largest foundations wind down. The social innovation fund's board is meeting and it is engaging on a fund-raising strategy. The Government has committed to a €5 million tranche of funding if that sum is matched by philanthropic funding. They are now busily engaged in sourcing that funding and will hopefully raise much more than that, but it is an uphill struggle.

The third area is improving fund-raising capacity. One cannot have good giving without good asking. Fund-raising Ireland has pioneered both a certificate and diploma in fund-raising to develop the capacity of fund-raisers.

Fourth, we are looking at changes to tax and regulation. On the regulatory side, the Irish Charities Tax Reform group, ICTR, is spearheading this part of the strategy. We have had major progress in that the Department has agreed to implement the 2006 Charities Act. It is in the process of setting up a register which should be up and running by the end of the year.

As regards taxation, we are seeking measures to encourage the establishment of more trusts and foundations. At the moment, some 25 trusts and foundations are operating that we are aware of, although there may be more because some of them operate underneath the radar. We have one of the lowest proportions of trusts and foundations anywhere in Europe. We are therefore looking for measures from the Government to encourage that.

The report on the four elements was published two years ago. We are well under way on three and a half of them. The only area in which we have not made progress is in persuading the Government about taxation. The Government is examining our proposals but we have not made progress yet.

To put our figure of €800 million in context, every year Irish people dump €1 billion in food. Every household dumps around €740 worth of food. If we could get people to check the use-by dates, and take a proportion of that food to a charity, it would have a massive impact. If we could get men to give as much as women, for example, it would also have an impact. The average yearly donation in Ireland is €130. Men give €100 while women give €160. We are trying to get people to make small differences, which, taken together, can have a huge impact.

The other area is corporate funding. There are no really good statistics for the sector, although this is probably the best document we have. The evidence we have suggests that corporate Ireland gives less than its counterparts in other jurisdictions. We are working with businesses to encourage growth both in the quantum and quality of giving. In many cases, money is being handed over in a way which does not maximise efficiency. We have heard stories - they are purely anecdotal - of a charity entering for "charity of the year" to get €10,000 but it costs them €5,000 to put the pitch together.

We are trying to move away from that towards more longer term relationships between business and the sector. We are also encouraging CEOs of businesses to become involved in charities and non-for-profits, to which they can bring a huge degree of management, time and ability. In terms of whether we will hit our targets, the answer is I do not know. We are doing our best to ensure we do.