Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is either misrepresenting me or was not listening to me. I gave one example of a single sector that had approximately 800 people working in it. I am not saying they are not needed or that they are not under pressure. Under the White Paper on voluntary activity, we have moved to put substantial resources into pay for individuals working full-time in the sectors. That is not to say that some sectors are not hard pressed — of course they are. Some sectors are entirely run by volunteers even on a full-time basis. Many of the health organisations do not have full-time staff, even though they operate on a full-time basis. There are people manning telephones and doing clerical work etc. This is a very good example of active citizenship. Substantial funds, running to millions of euro, have been allocated to a large range of organisations in the voluntary community sector. These funds often go to fund full-time staff.

One could say those resources can be switched around. To deal with this, the organisation would have to contact the relevant Minister and Department. This highlights why we need more active citizenship and more people to become involved in these areas.

As the Deputy said, many professional people give their spare time to help organisations which work with autism, disabilities and people who are suicidal or have been raped. A large number of professional people give their time voluntarily in organisations. I meet many of these groups, as I am sure does Deputy Sargent. I do not mean to take from the fact that we are putting large sums of resources into national, regional and local organisations.

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