Ms Yvonne McKenna:

I thank the committee for the positive response to our request to make a presentation. I am the chief executive of Volunteer Ireland and I am here together with Ms Nolan and Mr. Cotterell.

Volunteer Ireland is the national volunteer development agency and also a support body for local volunteer centres in Ireland and volunteering information services. We exist to increase awareness of volunteering, access to volunteering and quality in volunteering. We are here to talk to the committee today because we see this as a crucial moment with respect to the supports that we give to volunteering in Ireland.

It is the third time that we have spoken here. The first time was in 2003, and on foot of that meeting there was an announcement of a package of measures to support volunteering. It was the beginning of a strategic approach to supporting volunteering in Ireland through the development of volunteering infrastructure. We came here again in 2009 to talk to members as the country was slipping further into recession and to describe its impact on volunteering and highlight the importance of supporting volunteering through the recession. We are here today, hopefully, also at a crucial moment, as we turn the corner on the recession and come out of it, to seek the committee's support with respect to continuing to support volunteering but also to highlight some of the impact of the recession on supporting volunteering and the volunteering infrastructure.

Since the recession, we experienced an increase in the demand for volunteering roles, as the Chairman pointed out, of almost 100%, and that has remained consistently high. We are still experiencing many who want to volunteer and want to give to their community, and could also be seeking to develop their employability skills or seeking to make a positive change in their community. At the same time, the community and voluntary sector has experienced significant cuts and an increased demand for services. In that context, we are trying to support community and voluntary organisations to be better at involving volunteers and to be more creative about those volunteering roles.

As volunteer infrastructure, between ourselves and the volunteer centres, there have been near consistent cuts since 2009 and we are at a stage where any further cuts will cause unprecedented damage to the services that we can provide. In one sense, we are looking for the committee's support and a stay of execution with respect to the cuts being imposed.

More importantly, we also want to seek the committee's support. This committee, as I have outlined, has had a significant positive impact on supporting volunteering and we come to seek its support with respect to one issue, which is a policy for volunteering. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has committed to developing a policy that will support volunteering and from our perspective, two years down the road that policy has not yet been forthcoming. We believe a national policy should provide national objectives against which the achievements of the volunteering infrastructure could be set and evaluated. It is really in relation to those matters about which we are here to talk to the committee today. Obviously, we provided a submission in advance. I might hand over now to Ms Nolan who will speak about what we do and the outcomes we seek.