Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take on board the points made by Deputy McAuliffe. I know the Deputy's background and he will be aware that my background is in the credit union so nobody knows better the value of community, the value of volunteers and the voluntary ethos that I saw at first hand there.

I am pleased to see a number of recruitment drives for volunteers are taking place around the country. I want to see the volunteers who were there pre-pandemic coming back. Of course we also want to see new volunteers coming on board. I am glad that the citizens information services are looking and trying to attract volunteers. Indeed, I opened a newly upgraded citizens information centre in Monaghan town only last Friday. It is actually on the site of the old credit union because they have moved to bigger things. It was the 50th anniversary of the citizens information office in Monaghan. I opened another office in Roscommon earlier in the year. It is a great resource. We can use this as a call to people to come forward. We must be sure too that the information they give is accurate and independent. That is what we pride ourselves on.

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