Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

During the consultation process on the White Paper on supporting voluntary activity, I understand a wide range of road shows were held and regional consultations took place. There was consultation with the primary voluntary stakeholders. The same exercise was carried out during the consultation phase of the task force on active citizenship. I am aware it engaged extremely proactively with all organisations, big and small, throughout the length and breadth of the country. Targets were set that an extra 60,000 volunteers per year would be recruited as part of the process of enabling volunteer centres.

The Kildare volunteer centre has an extremely proactive engagement with NUI Maynooth and I launched an initiative there a couple of months ago. Students from 60 different nationalities with people from Kildare are on a database and are available to get involved in voluntary activity. This is the pattern throughout the country. At present, there are 13 county volunteer centres and three are at an advanced stage of development. I expect the remainder will be rolled out during the lifetime of the Government.

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