Mr. Tim Griffiths:

I would like to thank the committee for its invitation to this meeting. I am the chief executive of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland and prior to this role I had 25 years experience in the communications industry, the majority of which in senior leadership positions. I also sit on the board of directors of Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland.

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland is a not-for-profit organisation that is committed to accelerated social change through the power of people. Since our foundation in 2004, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland has identified and supported more than 600 entrepreneurs across the island of Ireland who are championing and driving solutions in areas such as mental health, homelessness, the environment, education and unemployment. Our vision has accelerated social change through the power of people.

What does this mean? Quite simply, it means we deliver this in two ways. We seek out people with unique insight and scalable ideas to social problems and then we offer them a deeper level of support to grow their impact through our vibrant community of change-makers. This support contributes to solving, or alleviating, social problems in Ireland. The support that we offer social entrepreneurs is made up of a balance of direct funding, coaching, expertise and mentorship. Social Entrepreneurs Ireland is funded through a combination of sources from corporations, foundations and individual philanthropy.

The committee seeks views on the challenges which businesses face around sustainability and corporate social responsibility. As part of our work, we provide, in a practical and direct way, a pathway for our innovate social entrepreneurs to achieve social change by connecting with businesses. This in turn provides a conduit for business to make a constructive and impactful response to their CSR obligations and to meet those challenges. Much of the support we give is delivered in conjunction with many of the corporates that support us. We are fortunate to have great corporate supporters, many over a long period of time, which include well-established Irish organisations, such as Keelings and DCC plc, as well as global organisations, like Bank of America.

To illustrate the impact of this support, I propose to outline some examples of some of the social entrepreneurs that we supported over the past 20 years. Mamobo Ogoro is the founder of GORM, which is a social enterprise on a mission to unify across social and cultural differences and advance belonging for marginalised communities. GORM helps bridge connections and conversations across communities through a unique blend of expertise in social psychology and creative media. It focuses on creating innovative digital media, intercultural education and events. GORM has successfully piloted an initial project, This is Them, which highlights the voices of people in different and diverse backgrounds. It has run events on the topic of diversity in the media. GORM piloted its diverse screen programme in late 2021, in which professionals give interactional talks on entering the media industry to new entrants. Mamobo Ogoro is developing a research and feasibility study on cultural diversity in Irish media to inform a media-specific diversity training programme for media professionals. One of its recent programmes, The Wideshot, was launched to support young people from ethnically diverse backgrounds to take the first step in their media careers through a series of workshops, education, training and events on digital storytelling, creative and multimedia. The programme aims to connect young people and recent graduates who are interested in creative media with established film and television practitioners and creative media professionals in Ireland by way of interactive workshops throughout the year.

James Leonard and Timmy Long are the founders and presenters of The Two Norries Podcast, which is a platform dedicated to addressing the issue of addiction through open and honest conversations. It is available to the public on-demand and it provides regular episodes that feature personal stories centered around addition and recovery with the aim of breaking down the stigma and misconceptions surrounding these topics. They also provide educational talks to companies and they have worked with the Irish Prison Service carrying out workshops in prisons. The Two Norries Podcast had a significant impact through media appearances, including the "Tommy Tiernan Show" and "Nationwide" on RTÉ. James Leonard and Timmy Long were nominated for Cork person of the year in 2022. The podcast has been downloaded over 1 million times, with a number of listeners directly seeking support, accessing education or changing their attitudes towards people in addiction and in prison because of the podcast's content.

Catherine Cleary and Ashe Conrad-Jones are the founders of Pocket Forests. Pocket Forests has crafted a transformative model that empowers communities to create and cherish natural spaces in their neighbourhoods, schools, and workplaces. Its approach involves retrofitting urban environments, influencing public discourse, and rekindling community bonds with nature. It achieves this by offering engaging soil health workshops and planting biodiverse, native forests in the heart of neighbourhoods, within schools, and amidst the hustle and bustle of workplaces. It has created 75 tiny forests and planted more than 2,500 trees and shrubs. It established a small tree nursery in the digital hub in Dublin and on the grounds of Shelton Abbey open prison in collaboration with the Irish Prison Service. Pocket Forests received two years of funding from the Department of agriculture's woodland support fund to work with 40 communities around Ireland in schools, GAA grounds, hospices and Tidy Towns' spaces.

I hope these examples provide a tangible illustration of what we do, what motivates us to continue to do this, and the real impact which is being made by so many social entrepreneurs around the country. I wish to stress that we could have a much wider impact, if there was increased Government co-ordination. The recent public consultation document on the national social enterprise policy for Ireland 2024-2027 states that, "Under the new policy, supporting this renewed focus demands greater levels of coordination across Government Departments and agencies". In our submission, as part of the consultation process, we stated that social enterprise plays a greater role in supporting the delivery of Government strategies and objectives. We believe that there should be clearer and more established channels for social enterprise to engage with Government. These channels should factor in cross-government engagement as, in our experience, many social enterprises operate in areas that are under the remit of multiple Government Departments.

For example, a social enterprise may be supporting delivery of a strategy or strategic objectives through the work of the Departments of Education and the Environment, Climate and Communications. We believe that consideration should be given as to how social enterprises access Departments to raise awareness of their work, with key representatives establishing a relationship with Government officials to inform Departments of their work on the ground, as well as learning how best to access support through collaboration with the Government. We also believe there is a need for bespoke legal structure for social enterprises. There are related challenges as to how social enterprises are defined in the national social enterprise policy and the options currently available to social enterprises for legal structures. We believe that Government policy should investigate a new bespoke legal structure for social enterprise that can encompass both for-profit and not-for-profit social enterprises. The current definition as stated in the national social enterprise policy could be perceived as diminishing the importance of profit, which in certain cases is necessary to achieve the maximum potential of the social enterprise and the societal benefit it is aspiring to deliver. We believe the Government should look for international examples beyond looking to include social enterprises within the co-operative legal model, as is suggested in the policy.