Katherine Zappone (Independent)

Before I begin, I take this opportunity to express my disappointment that the rules currently limit Sinn Féin's contribution to one minute.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I am impressed with and appreciate his comments. He is a man of action and implementation, and I look forward to what comes from his leadership in this arena. I also welcome the debate as an integral part of the ongoing work of his and other Departments in developing strategies for and with the community and voluntary sector. It is a time of exceptional challenge and opportunity for the work of Ireland's charitable and voluntary groups. The Minister indicated that there are 14,000 such organisations in the country. The figure I had was 7,900, but I will go with the Minister's figure; it all depends how one cuts it. Suffice to say we are talking about a huge number of organisations.

It is also a time of challenge for the sector's representative groupings such as the Irish National Community and Voluntary Forum and the Wheel, and for the Government's agenda of local government reform. I thank the Minister for his leadership in this regard. He referred in his speech to bringing together community and local government; that was a creative stroke. I say this in light of my own lengthy experience of working in the community and voluntary sector in south Dublin county, particularly with the communities of west Tallaght, as well as in colleagueship with other community actors and counties.

From the community and local development side, I have experienced the extraordinary resilience, innovation, flexibility and effectiveness of ordinary citizens gathering together to respond to local needs and ambitions. These citizens, working together, have met the needs which State agencies were unable to meet, especially in communities experiencing severe disadvantage and intergenerational poverty. From the local government side, I have witnessed the progressive efforts of elected representatives and executive administrations in developing programmes to provide more effective public services for citizens and residents which go beyond the traditional services delivered by local authorities. I have experience of working in partnership with community agencies, local development agencies, local authorities and philanthropic organisations in developing innovative services and programmes. I am sure the Minister will take such innovations into account as he develops the plans.

The challenge is to devise a new framework that will enable community and local government actors to develop and implement a common agenda as one community, pushing through the territorialities and drawing on the assets and strengths of each. It is vital at this juncture that there is a mutual meeting of minds between participative democracy - which is where I would locate the community and voluntary sector - and representative democracy, where local government is located, in order to design, decide on, resource and implement the delivery of high-quality, effective and efficient public services. This new framework should contain vibrant public spaces for advocacy and influence on laws and national policies. Surely this is part of the contribution that local democracy in both its forms has to offer national sustainability.

I have several questions which I hope will assist the Minister in meeting this challenge. First, how is his Department engaging with the community and voluntary sector in order to engage its learnings in the design, delivery and evaluation of high-quality services which meet the needs of citizens and residents? Does he plan to engage directly with the sector, perhaps through a national dialogue, on how to structure and govern effective programmes and services, build programme design and service content on robust theories of change, and ensure collaboration between local government and community agents in determining how these programmes should operate and how outcomes should be achieved by means of a negotiated process?

Second, the Minister has spoken of the need for greater alignment between local government and local development sectors in the context of the Government's reform agenda. Does he view the community and voluntary sector as part of the local development sector or situated alongside it? The latter is my view. It is critical to retain the independence of the community and voluntary sector as well as its interdependence with local development and local government. I ask the Department to consider a recent publication from the Wheel on this issue.

Third, what is the scope of the Minister's vision for partnership - I prefer the word "partnership" to "alignment" - between local government and local and community development? Given that, as the Minister is aware, local government is extremely complicated territory, does it encompass the Government's genuine desire to devolve resources as well as responsibility from central to local democratic structures? Does the Minister's vision incorporate a key role for community development approaches to reducing poverty, social exclusion and inequality? I use the term "community development approaches" in a technical sense.

As the Minister has indicated, his Department is responsible for the forum on philanthropy and fund raising, and he will be receiving an interim report shortly. Will he be in a position then to recommend to Government practical ways to increase charitable, philanthropic and planned giving to support the diversification of the funding base of the not-for-profit sector? Does the Government have any plans regarding the Irish Nonprofits Knowledge Exchange, an online register of all Irish charities and a critical building block for effective regulation of the sector?

Organisations within the community and voluntary sector receive supports and funding from a range of Departments. Do the Minister's plans incorporate an ambition to drive a joined-up and cross-departmental strategy and implementation plan to foster vibrant, sustainable and inclusive communities?