Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I have indirectly or directly met the vast majority of groups that had been funded under the previous three year envelope scheme. We have examined the three year programme and it was a good programme that achieved many of its objectives. Things have changed economically and I envisage a broadly similar approach being taken in the next round.

Several organisations working in the same area have approached me to see if I could encourage their desire for greater cooperation. From that point of view, new thinking is emerging on how things might be done. Some of it is driven by the scarcity of resources, but not all. Many groups realise that the ground can be crowded with different groups trying to do the same thing. There are 24,000 voluntary groups in the country, the movement's great strength, but sometimes the weakness is that the efforts are diluted. I cannot do it this side of budget but as soon as I can, we will re-engage in a scheme along similar lines. I can give a commitment to promote the scheme for three years but will only be able to outline funding for the first year.

See this speech in context