Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

We are trying to foster the spirit of activism such that people will volunteer some of their time, be it to the scouts, junior schoolboy football, the Irish Girl Guides or any other activity. The ESRI report issued before Christmas showed that 400,000 people in Ireland are actively engaged in this regard. It happens that as a country becomes more prosperous — this happens in every country — people tend not to give of their time. We must be honest about this. It is argued that individuals do not volunteer because they are busy, but we all know that those who are more likely to give of their time are those who are doing a bit for the GAA or soccer club, the scouts or credit unions. Other people are home at 5 o'clock in the evening and do not get involved — that is the truth.

The task force is asking what can be done to foster the spirit of activism. Its terms of reference are to review the evidence regarding trends and citizens' participation across the main areas of civic, community, cultural, occupational and recreational life — the ESRI report helps to feed into that; examine trends in the context of international experience and analysis — many good reports have been written on that subject in most countries; review the experience of organisations involved in political, caring, community, professional, occupational, cultural, sporting and religious dimensions of life regarding influences, positive and negative, on levels of citizen participation and engagement — that involves looking at the good and bad aspects, both of which we know exist; and recommend measures that could be taken as part of public policy to facilitate and encourage a greater degree of engagement by citizens in all aspects of life and the growth and development of voluntary organisations as part of a strong civic culture — I have no doubt that the Government, local authorities, the Health Service Executive and others will learn lessons from that. It is intended that the task force will complete its work within nine months.

The view was taken that we should do the preparatory work first rather than ask the task force to commence its work and spend ages waiting for people. We established the secretariat last autumn. It gathered the relevant information over the entire autumn and winter and determined how the process could work. It attended all the conferences I have mentioned.

We genuinely tried to accommodate everybody. Hundreds of people wanted to be involved although there was not a cent in it for any of them. One will appreciate the people involved, and they wanted to play their part. I had to choose representative areas and individuals because it could not be done otherwise. Luckily Mary Davis, who probably has the most credibility in this area because she has proved herself——

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