Ms Yvonne McKenna:

I will respond to the questions. I understand some of my colleagues will also wish to comment. With regard to the obstacle to the policy, we work closely with the community section of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and believe that it is committed to a policy.

That Department has a variety of policies of late. One of the obstacles is the workload of that section in the Department. I recognise that funding is an issue and that the Department will not be developing a policy that would commit to additional funding. We hope the policy will not result in any cuts to funding, however. We are trying to remind the Department of the importance of policy and the impact it should have.

In regard to whether we will be able to retain these volunteers, when we discussed this issue with a previous committee in 2009 we pointed out that the way in which Ireland supported volunteering through the recession could influence the kind of society that emerges. Job seeking and skills building were clearly a factor for many of the people who decided to volunteer in response to the recession but a considerable number indicated to us that they were motivated by a desire to be more involved in their communities and exercise a degree of control. This was a period in which Ireland lost its sovereignty and people wanted to get involved in activities which would have an immediate impact. Even if we are to go straight from a recession to another boom, it is important that we create a society in which everyone who wants to volunteer can volunteer. Some of the biggest barriers to volunteering are not knowing that one has something to give or where to go. That is why the infrastructure plays an important role.

Investment in volunteering infrastructure began in 2005 and since then we have never seen a reduction in the number of people who want to volunteer. The sense that people stopped volunteering during the boom is probably not entirely correct. It is an instinct to connect with others and I see this as becoming even more important as we, hopefully, head out of recession.

I agree that we sell ourselves short in regard to the impact of volunteering. Applying an average industrial wage to the number of hours that a volunteer donates does not even tell half of the story of the impact of volunteering on society. It is not the role of volunteering infrastructure to count volunteering or to get a sense of its impact. Perhaps the CSO can provide the national statistics required to get a real sense of the impact.

We have engaged with the Department of Social Protection regarding the barriers for volunteering among unemployed people. While recipients of State benefits are permitted to volunteer, individuals are being told that if they are seen to volunteer for longer than a certain number of hours they risk losing their benefits. A volunteer who receives State benefits can complete a certain form but the low number of completed forms reflects the extent to which people feel that receiving State benefits is a barrier to volunteering. One of the biggest barriers is the opportunity to volunteer. When organisations are firefighting because their funding is being cut and the demand for services is rising, they do not have the resources to take stock and see how they can grow their volunteer involvement. Our experience is that when people approach us to volunteer we can find it difficult to find opportunities that match their soft and hard skills.

We did not mention philanthropy in our submission. We work at local level to develop philanthropy but while someone who wants to give money will rarely be refused, it is often more difficult to find ways of investing offers of time.

We operate a national volunteer award scheme, the Volunteer Ireland awards. The scheme is operated nationally rather than at county level. People do not volunteer to win awards or recognition. The value of the award scheme is not necessarily for the person who receives an award but in the impact it has in inspiring others.