Ms Yvonne McKenna:

I will try. As regards funding, the only policy for volunteering in Ireland is that which supports volunteer centres, which has been on hold since 2009. If that is on hold and we are unlikely to suddenly start investing money in it, what should we be doing otherwise? We are also in a different time, so what can we do with the money invested to ensure that counties without a volunteer centre are also catered for? In addition, how can we fix the somewhat unequal investment across counties?

Many people will not need the support of a volunteering infrastructure. As an individual, if I feel confident about my abilities or if I know what cause or activity I wish to get involved in, the volunteering infrastructure is not necessarily there to help me. We try, however, to get those portions of the population that might not know the benefits of volunteering.

A lot of volunteering in Ireland occurs through organisations. Senator Landy mentioned the GAA, which has a huge presence. Few of those organisations, with the probable exception of the GAA, are established to accept volunteers. They have been set up to achieve aims, including combating homelessness or putting on community fairs. They often require support to ensure they are better at involving volunteers.

Every day, we see organisations that think they cannot ask someone to do something because they are not paying them. Or they may think they cannot ask a volunteer to leave an organisation if it is not going well. We try to build a capacity to encourage and assist organisations to think about involving various kinds of volunteers in different ways.

With respect to the Senator's question, we are not trying to take over what is already happening. We try to assist and support volunteering as it is required. We have worked with the GAA but, with all due respect, it probably does not need our support as much as other types of organisation that may not have volunteer policies or procedures in place. I do not mean that it has to be bureaucratic but instead of thinking one needs a fund-raiser, there may be different roles in which people can be involved, thus operating more broadly in the community as a result. It is not about us trying to take over existing volunteering, but is rather about trying to address the gaps.