Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan. It is a pleasure to follow Senators Martin Conway and Labhrás Ó Murchú, both of whom spoke with great passion on this important issue. The launch of The One Percent Difference campaign is an important step towards the development of a culture of strategic giving in Ireland. As I understand it, it effectively represents the implementation of the first recommendation in the report of the forum on philanthropy and fund-raising, which the Minister convened soon after taking office. It is great to have an opportunity to celebrate the launch of the new campaign and reflect on what is happening.

It is absolutely crucial for this country's recovery that the Minister maintains a high-profile leadership role in the promotion of a culture of strategic giving which calls on the civic, ethical and financial resources of all citizens. Government leadership is vital in a context where all the research demonstrates that Ireland is behind in this regard. That research offers various analyses as to why it should be so. One of the greatest barriers is the belief or ideology that it is a matter solely for government to fulfil the cultural, social and economic needs of its people. On the contrary, in a progressive, post-modern, 21st century country we require a robust and growing partnership between citizens and government. Mr. Bill Clinton, former President of the United States, spoke a great deal about this when he was in Dublin. Irish culture must embrace partnership between citizens and government to support the wealth of - and the wealth generated by - the non-profit, social, civic and cultural sectors.

As colleagues and the Minister observed, for the initiative to succeed we need everybody to give and, moreover, to do so strategically. In fact, we need people to give back and give forward. The One Percent Difference campaign, it its awareness-raising and media activities, is presenting the Irish people with this message in a straightforward and effective way. Philanthropy Ireland helpfully circulated information to Members, including links to some of its excellent advertisements, in case we had missed them. I welcome the Minister's leadership in encouraging and supporting the campaign.

It is important to emphasise the urgency of the challenge to grow the culture of strategic giving. We are all aware of the tremendous number of charities, non-profit organisations, cultural agencies and initiatives and community-based organisations - many of which Senators are engaged in - that have had to find ways to continue to operate despite being stripped to the bone of past resources. They have been obliged to do more with less and largely succeeded in that regard, but their spirit and motivation have been significantly impacted by the long period of financial crisis. We have a responsibility as law makers, policy makers and public leaders to ensure the spirit of cultural and social innovation is not damaged beyond repair. We have not yet come to that, but I am deeply concerned that if more resources do not come on stream soon, then we may start to lose one of the Irish people's greatest assets, namely, the ingenuity and idealism which can create the social and cultural conditions for the recovery of our economy.

We need cultural resources too. With the launch of The One Percent Difference campaign, I want to affirm two critical elements of its message. The first is the encouragement for everyone to give, a point on which two previous speakers spoke eloquently. The Minister referred to President Clinton speaking about democratising the culture of giving. That point hit home. Secondly, the message going out is to think about giving in a more strategic manner. At the beginning of the report of the Forum on Philanthropy and Fund-raising is a message:

Philanthropy is a particular kind of charitable giving. It is focused on the root causes of problems and making a sustainable improvement, as distinct from contributing to immediate relief.

We want people to give in an efficient and effective way yet we also want people to give because to give, to give back and to give forward is one of the most human things to do. We want to find ways to encourage people to touch the great human capacity of empathy as well as creativity. I was taken by a recent article from the international edition of The New York Timesabout the philanthropy of Ralph Lauren and recalling his most recent philanthropy project, which was restoring an amphitheatre of the école nationale supérieur des beaux-arts. The article quotes him: "I don't like the word 'philanthropy,' because it separates me from the emotion of how and why I did things.”. Is philanthropy a foreign word? I actually like the word but I am struck by the fact it is a difficult word in our culture. Is it a word devoid of emotion? Yes, we need to be strategic, thoughtful and results-oriented and we need to use our logical models to plan the change we want to bring about but we must never go so far into that territory that we divide ourselves and our people from the emotion and the heart of giving.

I have a number of questions on the campaign. Senator Conway referred to looking forward to reviewing some of the results of the campaign. The forum report refers to setting a target to increase private giving by 10% year-on-year to 2016. Are there plans on how to measure the increase in giving related to this campaign? How will we know if the forum and the national giving campaign has been successful?

As I read the recommendations of the forum, which is effectively a roadmap to develop a culture of strategic giving in Ireland, I noted the four primary recommendations are interlinked. Any one will not work too well without progress on other fronts. I phoned people yesterday to put together some reflections and they made this point. Let us remind ourselves of some of the other recommendations. Can the Minister indicate to us, today or later, if there have been developments on the forum's fiscal and infrastructural recommendations on tax reform? I understand a social innovation fund is being set up and some moneys have been granted by the Government and philanthropic organisations. Has there been progress in setting up the €10 million fund for the establishment and growth of social innovations?

I am mindful of our budget. In his speech about entrepreneurship, innovation and investment, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, referred to measures to encourage the business initiative. In the Action Plan for Jobs, there was a recommendation for Forfás to publish a report on how social enterprise can contribute to our sector. The report was published and the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, set up an intergovernmental group to determine how to progress the recommendations of the Forfás report. I am concerned that one report will follow another. I wish the budget had contained an announcement about investment in social enterprise as well as in the business sector. Perhaps it is coming soon and perhaps the Minister can comment on this.