Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the witnesses from both panels. My first question is to those from the social enterprise section of Forfás. There is huge potential for growth in the social enterprise sector, but it is not well understood in Ireland. The witnesses are probably aware that Leader has been quite good at funding projects in this area but it is now in abeyance until the next tranche of funding, which is likely to be in 2015. I have read a number of very exciting reports with good projects that could be operationalised as social enterprise projects. By and large, they are not for profit and many are recommended to be got up as charities or trusts. I am conscious of the recent controversy around charities. What is the witnesses' advice in this regard? This will be a low-profit sector. The profit made from a social enterprise projects is generally used to pay wages, and thereby employ people, and basically to cover costs. The yield from it will not go towards a profit. There is no fat there. Getting buildings and capital projects completed involves a huge cost. We have a lovely project ready to roll in Galway called the Galway Young Creators' Centre, which is to run in tandem with the second level system, providing after-school opportunities to explore young people's creativity, but the funding needed to get it off the ground is substantial. Once it was off the ground it would cover itself. Who is out there to help this type of project get off the ground? Does Forfás help social enterprise initiatives? I think it is mainly focused on policy, from what I can glean.
I want to say well done to the delegates from the Equality Budgeting Campaign. There has been a good amount of evidence for a long time that the more equal a society we have the better it is for everyone. Mr. Keane referenced the book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, which is very interesting. It is an area that is not well understood. I am struck by the fact that he said that such analysis should be done. Have the witnesses met with the Department of Finance?