Ms Patricia Nolan:

Deputy Nash referred to a skills bank for volunteers. We have not rested on our laurels in building a national database through which volunteers can identify opportunities because we are now throwing it on its head. In the next couple of months we will be launching a volunteer finder service, whereby community organisations can log on to our database to search for volunteers by their skills. The online system should be launched by the end of this summer. We are constantly building on our online presence.

All of the volunteer centres are encouraged to work with their local authorities and local area partnerships. South County Dublin Volunteer Centre is housed by South Dublin County Council in its Clondalkin and Tallaght offices. We are not housed there today but we are normally housed there. All of the volunteer centres are in receipt of some funding from their local partnerships. Ring-fenced funding of 1% is given to local partnerships for volunteering activities, and this goes to the local volunteer centres. We have close working relationships with local authorities and local partnerships and it is important that we are integrated at that level.

In regard to retaining volunteers as we come out of the recession, my experience at local level is that many of those who started volunteering during the recession were not necessarily unemployed people who had time on their hands. Our volunteers included people who felt the country was in trouble and they wanted to put their shoulders to the wheel. The main reason people volunteer with us is because they want to give something back not because they want to gain or improve their skills. That is an interesting trend.