Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I have not announced the membership. However, a large number of organisations have pressed for this since the publication of the White Paper on volunteerism two years ago which at the time was chaired by Chris Flood. A large conference of all of the organisations active in this area was held recently. It was organised as the annual conference of The Wheel, a body which draws on representatives from a wide range of voluntary organisations. I spoke on this issue at the conference. The representatives gave me their views on the kind of terms of reference they want. More broadly, as similar developments have also happened internationally, my Department has been examining other experiences as well as research carried out elsewhere on this subject. An enormous number of organisations in the country which are active in volunteerism would like to be on the task force but it is not possible to include them all. We will let organisations nominate individuals because they are national organisations such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and women's organisations. I will try to ensure the process does not drag on indefinitely and get terms of reference that give a guideline to short-term actions. It could possibly remain in place for some medium and longer term issues. Many of these organisations have done excellent work and carried out research themselves. They are now trying to ensure that some of these issues are addressed on a national basis. The annual conference of The Wheel and the papers connected with it set out what they have done and what they think the country and State agencies can do. We will base the terms of reference on the papers submitted at the annual conference.

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