Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is nice to have him here and he is welcome back any time. The issue at hand is the application of the restrictions of funding to voluntary and community sectors. That is what we want to discuss and we are here late at night because we all care about it deeply. I thank Senators Ruane and Higgins for pointing it out. It is important that we find things on which we can work together and have commonality.

The Electoral Act is a source of legal uncertainty and significant challenge for a sector that is already stretched to its limit during this time. Organisations that can be impacted by the application of this include many organisations that we have all probably been involved in, such as Tidy Towns and biodiversity groups. SIPO has agreed there is a flaw in the legislation and we all know that SIPO knows exactly what is going on when it comes to political donations. The definition of "political purposes" is so wide that it may unintentionally cover, on an ongoing basis, many of the voluntary groups that need our support and need not to be prohibited by funding and donation constraints.

I will give a couple of examples. Seventeen years ago, I came together with six other mothers, as Senator Bacik has done, and started a Steiner school. We were three years without a penny from the State and it was all based on volunteering and fundraising. Seventeen years later, that school has 150 pupils and is funded by the State. We gave people a new choice in education, that was co-educational and had a different pedagogy. It was the first free Steiner school in Ireland. Instead of being a fee-paying school, we fought tooth and nail to get it recognised by the State and it became a free school. That would not have happened except that we were able to take donations and allow volunteers to run the school.

Another example is the ban on fracking in this country. That started in my kitchen with a few friends. We decided we wanted fracking banned in County Clare. We got some funding, some donations. We did a 3,000 leaflet drop of all the houses in west and north Clare. That leaflet informed people what fracking was, because they did not know at that time. It also gave them the numbers of all their local councillors so that when the motion was brought to the council a few weeks later, every councillor had received hundreds of phone calls from concerned citizens and fracking was unanimously banned in Clare, the first council in Ireland to do so, although many followed suit. The matter then came before the Dáil and we are now a fracking-free nation. These things happen with small groups. Margaret Mead said never to doubt that a small group of people can make a difference because, in fact, it is the only thing that ever did.

I find it refreshing that I am in the House for the first time since I became a Senator and we are working together on something. It is great that we can come together and find commonality because, at the end of the day, the people we represent are not bothered about who is in or who is out, they just want to get things done, to progress and work in and support communities. The hearts of souls of volunteers and community organisations are keeping this country going at the moment.

I commend the Senators who brought in the legislation and I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, will do his level best to deal with any issues. I know that Senator Mullen has some issues. I have no doubt that the Minister of State and those in opposition who are working with him will sort it all out and do a great job. I support this amendment.