Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cairns for her comments. As I said earlier, my Department is represented on several groups, along with the Department of Justice and Equality, that address migrant, immigration and Traveller rights issues. All of the issues that Deputy Cairns has raised arise at these forums. We have the Roma strategy and strategies for the different groups. We fund these from my Department.

The Deputy asked about charities. She is quite correct to state that charities have gone through a difficult time since this crisis. The Charities Regulator gave me a briefing on how charities are responding and what is happening. I will give the House some pointers. The impact has been severe on all charities. A total of 55% of respondents indicated that their finances were uncertain and that they were in difficulty. Some 45% stated that their funding would barely be okay between now and the end of the year. There is no doubt about it. They all said that fundraising activities had to be stopped because of the crisis. To be fair to some of the charities, they have looked at new ways and new initiatives. RTÉ, including via "The Late Late Show" and shows like it, has highlighted some of the charities whose funding has been cut. I must say another thing that I cannot put on the record often enough: we have a wonderful country. Sometimes people knock this country but it is a fantastic country. We have a fantastic mindset. A great many people support charities every Friday night and every day of the week.

Deputy Cairns is right about social enterprises. Most of these have been able to operate. We did not cut back on any of our funding channels for these groups. In fact, we have been very lenient to them, and rightly so, because we learned one thing in this crisis: but for the voluntary and community sectors we would have serious problems in this country. People talk about volunteers and people giving of their time. We have volunteers in this country. When we had the community call a total of 17,000 people put their hands up and said they were ready to volunteer. People did not know what volunteer centres were or what they did and what we were funding. We gave them extra funding. These volunteer centres have been in operation and have matched up people with organisations that needed support and help. The one word I must say is "volunteers". I thank them on behalf of the Government and the country for the way they have responded, the way they have put their lives at risk and the way they have responded to the community call. I cannot thank them enough, but I can say "Well done" to them. What a great country this is.

My Department has the €40 million-----

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