Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on highlighting this important issue, the important role of volunteering in Irish society. Many points have been made that I had intended making and, therefore, I will make a few brief points.

In my experience volunteerism is the lifeblood of local communities. I live in Oranmore, a burgeoning area of population growth. It is the largest growth area in County Galway. When I was elected as a councillor in 2004, I became aware of the many people volunteering and, might I say, they were burnt out from it. They have been continually giving and while many new people were moving into the area they were not necessarily volunteering. I am amazed by the numbers of people mentioned in the House today, as being involved in volunteering because in areas of new population growth, I see the opposite.

I shall give an example of how important this was for me and my local community. After I was elected a benevolent gentleman in the community offered me a donation for any worthy cause. I reflected that hurling enthusiasts would be upset if I gave it to the soccer people, as would some other group if I gave it to drama. I decided not to make any decision until I knew a little more, and eventually decided to set up a volunteers award programme. However, the donation was not adequate and so the benevolent gentleman agreed to triple it and two years ago we started the Oranmore volunteer awards programme.

We decided not to run it every year because we wanted new people to come forward and have a chance to volunteer. There were two aims, to acknowledge and award the wonderful effort of people who had been volunteering for years, and were suffering from burn out, as well as to encourage new people to come forward. The outcome was tremendous and everyone gained in the sense that it was spread very wide, and lasted almost a year. We sought guidance from the community regarding whom it was thought should be rewarded under special categories, from special needs to mental health, sport, young people involved in democracy, older people, etc. I do not have the categories off the top of my head.

The Minister of State is in an ideal position to acknowledge such awards programmes and encourage them. He should find unique methods of encouraging volunteerism to continue. He should also look at PRSI, because this is an issue that has arisen for voluntary groups, since it can prevent them continuing some of their great work. I have seen examples of what I am talking about, throughout Galway city and county, whether as the mayor's awards or all those volunteering within development associations, boards of management and especially sporting organisations. When we might have been ashamed, at times, of the church, the Government and traditional leadership, the volunteers have been our heroes. It is time to give volunteerism a new status.

I recently visited libraries and tourism offices in Australia where I saw people wearing a pin, which said "Volunteer". I asked what that meant and was told the pin was to show the wearer was a volunteer. I thought it was a good idea. People are sent on training courses and do a set number of hours in particular organisations, which is reflected on their curricula vitae. My final point — I want to push this one in the area of education — is that we should be making voluntary service a requirement of graduation, either at secondary or third level. It is a real virtue, an exercise in democracy, social inclusion, innovation and active citizenship. I should like to explore that further, and perhaps the Minister of State could think about it as well.