Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on this important topic. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy John Curran, to the House. I agree with his comment that volunteering is central to ideals of democracy, social inclusion and active citizenship and support for volunteering is essential to ensure a vibrant civic society. Like Senator Norris, I stress that volunteering is not exclusive to the Christian tradition, an issue raised by the Minister of State, and much of it has its origins in secular tradition or the traditions of other religions.

It is appropriate that all Senators should pay tribute to the long and proud history of volunteering in Ireland, irrespective of whether its source is religious or secular. However, to refer to the importance of volunteering and pay tribute to those who engage in voluntary work is like apple pie and motherhood in that no one will disagree. For this reason, I wish to inject a more challenging, if not controversial, view on volunteering. Let us be a little more forensic in our investigation of the role of volunteering in society, particularly as certain aspects of this role deserve critical comment. To do so is not in any sense to do disservice to the many generations of volunteers who have done enormous work on behalf of society for the common good. While I do not mean in any way to disparage, discredit or undermine the role of volunteering, we need to examine the issue in a more critical light and ascertain how we, as a society, engage with volunteering and voluntary organisations.

There has been a long tradition in Ireland of voluntary organisations taking on roles which the State should perform. In so doing, they have tended to absolve the State from responsibility. This has not always been a healthy tradition. I speak, in particular, of the highly influential role the Catholic church has played and continues to play in the provision of services such as education, health care, social supports and residential child care. The extent to which the church took on this role, particularly in the early years of the State, resulted in it being referred to by some academics as a shadow welfare state. However, in taking on a role neglected by the State the church became in effect a provider of services that were provided by the authorities in other states. In a sense, this development prevented and obstructed the emergence of a proper welfare state, with unhealthy consequences for the state of our democracy and social services.

We have seen the dreadful abuses which took place in institutions run by voluntary organisations, including religious orders. I do not suggest abuse was exclusive to any religion or religious order because dreadful abuses were perpetrated in a variety of institutions run by many bodies. That for a long time the State was not directly responsible for providing care to the most vulnerable children allowed it to step back and take less of a regulatory role than it should have done in terms of controlling the manner in which children were cared for in institutions. This should be a cause of shame. As a result of the continuing lack of regulation of the voluntary sector, we have a lack of accountability.

Many voluntary groups argue for greater regulation. The long awaited Charities Bill will be an important part of the regulatory system. I welcome the establishment of a charities regulatory authority and a more formal structure for the recognition of charities and non-governmental organisations. It has been unfortunate for NGOs and those for whom they provide services that the legislation has been so long coming.

Some NGOs did things other than provide services the State should have provided and many of them continue to challenge the State and ask hard questions of Ministers. In doing so, they carry out a function the State sector is not able to perform. The NGOs must continue to play a vital role in this area. Groups in which I am involved include the Irish Penal Reform Trust, which routinely challenges the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on conditions in our prisons and penal justice and criminal justice policies, and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, which asks hard questions of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. These activities cannot be carried out by the State and must be done by organisations established by volunteers in constructive engagement with the State. Similarly, Friends of the Earth, in which I declare an interest, has been asking challenging questions of the Ministers for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Finance about what will be done in the budget to protect the environment and reduce our carbon emissions. This is a task which must be carried out by a voluntary organisation as it cannot be performed by the State. It is not something the State can do.

In recent years the role of the State and that of voluntary groups has merged to an even greater extent than occurred previously, to which the Minister of State referred. This is happening through State funding of voluntary groups such as, for example, housing charities. These groups provide services, by way of State funding, to homeless persons or people with inadequate housing. They have become what are known as NNGOs, non non-governmental organisations, to use a term that has been coined elsewhere. They are essentially part of the State structures, the State having recognised that they deserve funding because they provide essential services. A question of regulation arises in this context. There is nothing wrong with this practice being the way in which we provide our services, once we can be sure services are provided in a way that is accountable and not abusive. That has been the difficulty in the past, namely, there has been a lack of accountability and of direct democratic answerability for the institutions that provide services.

We debated the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill last week. A good example of such accountability was covered in the debate on the housing Bill. Housing charities are seeking regulation. They want to be included within the framework envisaged in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, under which criteria will be specified whereby those providing housing services will allocate housing to people based on objective criteria of need and so on. There is a lesson there for us in terms of NGOs and voluntary activity. Such work is vital to the functioning of our democracy, but it should be done in a transparent and accountable way and through a regulated system of NGOs.