Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

Does the Minister of State find it embarrassing that four and a half years after the White Paper on voluntary activity and two and a half years after publication of the Tipping the Balance report he is responding to a report from an Oireachtas committee when his Department has not responded to the recommendations of the original report and the response by the community and voluntary sector?

The fact that there was a reference to the White Paper in the Minister of State's previous reply indicates he is being selective in how it can and should be interpreted. I argue that one of the factors in determining whether the Department is successful in this regard is the number of volunteers in our society, whether they feel secure in offering themselves as volunteers and whether adequate resources are being provided. The Department is failing on each of those criterion. Rather than being an enabling Department, it has decided to be a distorting and controlling one. On those grounds, there is a case to answer.

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