Vol. 1 No. 9
I welcome our visitors from Business in the Community, Mr. John Trethowan and Ms Clodagh Gorman. I apologise for the change of time and hope it did not put you out too much. I know what the traffic is like at this time in the morning.
I would like to point out that you do not share the same privileges enjoyed by the members of the joint committee. Perhaps you might introduce yourselves. Once we have heard your submission, I will allow questions from members.
I thank the committee for taking the time to hear a presentation from Business in the Community this morning. I chair the employer-supported volunteering task force. Business in the Community Ireland was set up in the past three years and has several projects running, of which this is one.
As Mr. Trethowan has outlined, Business in the Community Ireland is working with Irish companies to develop corporate responsibility. As part of that work, we work with businesses to assist the transfer of skills into the local community.
A key aspect of this work is to support the ad hoc community work that already exists in Irish business and make it more sustainable by developing a programme in which staff involvement in the local community and resource giving are combined into a sustainable project with board approval to achieve greater impact on the local community. Employer-supported volunteering is a key element in that.
We currently have two companies active in that way in the Dublin area. I would like to use those two as examples of what we will discuss today. The first is Bank of Ireland in Cabinteely, which is piloting such a programme and has around 1,500 staff. When we started three years ago, we thought that the difficulty would lie in activating companies, but our experience in Cabinteely has taught us about companies' difficulties in engaging with the local community. To do so, the company, with our assistance, engaged in meetings with area development management partnerships, county councils and various community fora. Over a two-year period, it invited groups to an open day to address their needs in the local area. I reiterate that the intention was to assist the company in transferring business skills to community organisations.
We also have an organisation called Heaton Buckley working in the Tallaght region, which is the holding group for such companies as Atlantic Homecare. It is currently piloting a similar programme on that site. The Tallaght Volunteer Bureau assists local organisations in finding volunteers and helps them set up processes to engage with them. When we worked with Heaton Buckley, we assisted it in putting its programme and policy in place, linking it with the Tallaght Volunteer Bureau, which then worked on the transference of skills and so on. The programme co-ordinator from Bank of Ireland, Nell Kavanagh, is here today, as is Tricia Nolan, manager of the Tallaght Volunteer Bureau.
It is important that such support be developed nationally. When I met Deputy Keaveney earlier this year, the analogy I used was that the Special Olympics this year, despite constant media reports that people are not volunteering, has managed to get 30,000 volunteers involved. It currently has a waiting list of 4,000 people who wish to become involved, a testament to the spirit and the will present. After the games close in June, what happens to that will and those people who have come forward?
The National Committee on Volunteering was developed in 2000 following proposals in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and the subsequent White Paper - Supporting Voluntary Activity. The report and recommendations of the committee, entitled Tipping the Balance, were lodged with the Government in October 2002.
The report contains two main recommendations. The first is that a policy supporting volunteering in Ireland be developed to include strategies on supporting, regulating, protecting, developing and promoting volunteering and addressing barriers to volunteering, including targeting volunteers and the image of volunteering. Following from this it is recommended that an infrastructure be developed to support it.
Business in the Community believes the first thing that can be done without significant funding is to start policy development. This would, in turn, support the development of the currently developing ad hoc development infrastructure. By starting policy development, the financial requirements for the infrastructure would be identified along with possible funding methods, whether they be through additional allocations from the dormant accounts fund, European Union or public-private funding. By developing the policy and increasing the number of volunteers and the activity in the volunteering sector, a multiplier effect occurs in terms of unlocking economic activity. It is also a good time to develop this policy in a holistic fashion as the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is currently working towards service integration. As volunteering is a local issue, it is something committee members will recognise as crucial to their areas. Implementation of the recommendations in the Tipping the Balance report is a tangible method of responding to an apparent lack of volunteers in communities.
Business in the Community is a conduit through which to engage companies and business skills in volunteering. The companies are supported to assist staff to transfer skills into local communities and they volunteer to support local projects, some of which are supported by FÁS under the social economy programme. Others are supported by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs under the CDT or IDM programmes. Regardless of whether volunteers volunteer their specific professional skills or volunteer in a different role, there is still a cultural exchange between the business - and sometimes the public sector - and the voluntary sector in terms of how things get done and are achieved.
Business in the Community assists on the supply side in providing volunteers and has a proven record in assisting companies to engage volunteers in communities. The corporate social responsibility agenda, which is starting to impact on companies, will require them to account for themselves within the communities in which they operate and this will tend also to encourage volunteers to come forward. It is important, therefore, that we engage this goodwill in the good projects. We ask committee members to consider what they can do to effect implementation of the report's recommendations and to make this a more inclusive society. Can the committee seek further clarity from the Department on the steps it proposes to take to adopt the policy on volunteering and to give effect to it?
Business in the Community would be very happy to host what we call a "seeing is believing" tour for members of the committee to bring them to the communities and enable them see how employers support volunteer working in community projects. We would also invite members to identify projects in their constituencies which they consider may benefit from business engagement. We can act as a conduit for that.
Thank you for your presentation. It is a very interesting concept. Many of us have businesses in our constituencies and communities which appear to act as if they are apart from the community, yet the community could benefit from the expertise they can offer. Those working in such businesses live in the community and in view of this, there must be a clear link between knowledge and need. Welding the two together is an interesting concept, but there does not appear to have been a structure to facilitate it.
Members of the organising body for the Special Olympics attended a meeting of the committee earlier this year. Approximately 820 people were involved at that stage. The issue of volunteering, from sporting and other perspectives, is very important to the work of the committee. Do you consider that volunteers are sufficiently valued and what obligations should the State have towards them? Has work been done on identifying best practice in Tipping the Balance which the Department can utilise? There is much to be learned from the hosting of the Special Olympics. Do you have any views on the voluntary sector moving to the chairs of new boards via the NGOs? A number of members are offering and I call Deputy Deenihan.
I welcome the delegation. From my involvement in a large number of community groups, I realise the value of having business people in them. Sometimes committees can be very enthusiastic but can lack direction or strategy because those concerned are not involved in business. To survive in business nowadays requires an ability to work within a strategy and to achieve objectives. In view of this, it is important that businesses should become more involved in their communities. That is not universally the case. While businesses may provide assistance and corporate sponsorship, their expertise may be even more important. In view of this, it is important that corporate Ireland becomes more involved in supporting community groups. The difference between success and failure for many voluntary groups often hinges on a successful strategy, planning, direction and advice. They have the commitment but would not have the necessary expertise. What incentives does the delegation consider should be provided to businesses to encourage them to become involved in this way? What mechanisms in addition to the tax code could be used?
The Deputy has made a number of valid points. I do not consider any tax incentives are required. Good business entails corporate social responsibility. We hosted a conference in Dublin last March which was opened by the President and was addressed by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It was part of a rolling conference across Europe on the need for corporate social responsibility. Companies are being asked not only to account for themselves financially, but also in terms of their impact on their communities and environment. They are now being asked to report on these aspects in their annual accounts. At present, it is good practice, but there is a view that over the next couple of years, the European Union will issue a directive making this mandatory. It is good business to be a good corporate citizen.
There are tangible business benefits arising from staff involvement in the community because apart from the increased morale among staff, companies also find it an excellent staff development method. It promotes personal development and additional business skills because staff are working on real projects with real people to real time limits and different management skills. To that end, Business in the Community is currently working with the FÁS excellence through people programme to recognise employer support and volunteering within their framework as a valid method of business training.
I know some companies second their executives to work with community groups. How prevalent is that? If they take such time with community groups, will the employer allow that as a time element? I know from experience that it is more difficult to get volunteers in a broad range of organisations. The people already in place are exhausted in many instances. If one goes to many towns in Ireland, one finds a major overlap of volunteers between organisations. The age profile is getting older as there are fewer young people involved in organisations and the people who were there in the 1970s are still there. They do not want to be there, but they have to and they are getting exhausted and the numbers are decreasing all the time. The Special Olympics has been a spectacular success as regards attracting volunteers, but people know it is for one event and it is easier to get people for one event than into organisations. Can Ms Gorman address that as well as the issue of allowing people an incentive by allowing time in lieu or seconding people to organisations? It is an effective way of ensuring that organisations are well run. It has been done in Kerry through the Kerry Group. There are some good examples.
I am taken by this concept and am pleased to hear about it. My experience with community organisations is similar to what Deputy Deenihan has outlined in that it is hard to get people and the good people tend to get overloaded and cannot be as good in the longer term. Looking at a negative which outlines the importance of the delegates' organisation is if a company in a town closes there is not just an economic loss, but employees may well be involved with sporting and community organisations and their loss can be major. A structured approach such as that proposed has great merit because when people who have business experience become involved in business organisations, one of the things that happens is that horizons are raised. On the other side of that, unrealistic proposals are dealt with.
I know that recent exposures with regard to child abuse have caused problems for sporting organisations and dampened some people's enthusiasm for getting involved. The GAA, for example, introduced a course to teach people how to operate and not leave themselves open to accusations. In my experience it has been a negative factor in what has happened. The area of insurance is a problem for everyone, not just community and sporting organisations. Bringing the skills of people who are achievers in their own field into community organisations is important. I note that the delegation is looking for a definitive policy in regard to volunteering and how it would be given effect. I support what they are doing. As they have pointed out, it is a win-win situation. The skills are going to be of major benefit to the organisations as is the interface with the business community. There is a great deal of goodwill there and we are talking about channelling it.
There are cultural and lifestyle issues which are affected by people's working hours and the amount of spare time they have to devote to the voluntary and community sector. One of the most important things I see with community projects is that there is a proper monitoring system put in place, that progress and targets are constantly monitored and that there is a high level of accountability. There are people who like to get positions but do not necessarily follow through with the kind of commitment that is required. With a system of the type proposed here, there would be a need for a certain level of monitoring. This would mean that people who prefer office work are not inflicted on the community.
This is a good news story. It is timely and it would be wrong not to treat it in an urgent way. We all have different experiences in our own communities. We have good as well as negative experiences. In this report, we can point to good things such as the Special Olympics. It is impressive to think in terms of 30,000 volunteers. However, it is important not to see that as an on-going development. The delegates quite rightly posed a question as to where it goes from here.
I would rather look at the community service rather than "volunteering" which is a word with which people perhaps do not identify. The first time I came across it was about 25 years ago in the US. When people used to tell me they were volunteering, I did not know what they were talking about - it was just another word. In Ireland it is a word that is not fully understood. I come from a small town with a population of 3,000 people and there are 37 voluntary organisations involved in sports, culture, meals on wheels and so on. They are all working but with great difficulties.
In the past where corporate Ireland made various donations to organisations to help them with their work, it was money well invested. With a small amount they were able to prime community activity and one could see the results. We must be careful that we do not see this development, which I admire, as replacing what is already there. The area of interaction is particularly important. If it is seen as replacing it, one is putting new structures in place and by doing so, one is spending money on maintaining structures themselves. Deputy Deenihan quite rightly focused on the problems associated with young people who are perhaps not as enthusiastic about getting into work and perhaps that requires new approaches. However, there are other reasons people may be backing off from volunteering.
The cost of insurance alone is an issue. If one is involved in an organisation and one has to foot the bills and pay for the insurance for meetings or activities, one finds it is reaching a stage where it is no longer possible. In the past people did not even think of insurance or, if they did, it was a small amount. It is now multiplied a hundred times over. Organising a meeting in a local hall will probably cost €100 for public liability insurance. These are real issues. I do not expect this project to be able to handle it but the delegates might take on board the idea of talking to central government about supplying a centralised insurance policy for the country. If this is not tackled we will have a serious problem. Some members are old enough to look back on a serious case which is now part of folk memory. In County Offaly many years ago Muintir na Tíre was involved in organising a card game during which there was a very serious fire. There was not proper insurance cover, major cases were taken, two local farmers who were members of the committee were selected and held responsible and the possibility of them selling their farms arose. After 35 years, that folk memory is still there.
There is also the question of child sexual abuse. While in the past people were prepared to help with young people, they are now fighting shy of that because of the inherent dangers. These dangers are real in the areas of sport and other community activities. I would like to think that a powerful body which has a corporate base, professional backing at its disposal and a greater understanding of the wider market, nationally and internationally, than a locally-based community organisation, could play a central role with regard to these problems. How do we overcome them because they are not going to go away?
While I am welcoming this it is important to realise that we have a strong community base for voluntary activity. We have to see how we can help those involved in it to get over the problems I have mentioned and how we can enhance and resource them. There are several national organisations under all headings and most of them percolate down into the local community. It would be great if corporate Ireland would liaise with them to see how we might work through them, first of all, because getting out into the greater diversity of individual groups or projects will be difficult.
I compliment everybody involved. I compliment their professional approach and the surveys which have been done. We are moving towards partnership in this area and this is another step in that direction.
I am interested in Business in the Community. I worked in the arts in London where there were very strong connections between local communities and the business sector. This had nothing to do with Government. I worked for the Arts Council, which is a public body, in the London area. Businesses became involved out of their own good because they got so much out of the local community and wanted to put something back. In the east end of London, which is a disadvantaged area and also on the edge of the financial district, several big businesses gave a hand through people giving their time freely to community projects. It was a fantastic experience and it seemed to be a very hands-on approach.
From listening to today's presentation I have the impression that Business in the Community wants organisations that the Government will support and for public bodies to put something up into which other people will come. I would be more interested in something like the London experience, as I saw it, where the people made the engagements themselves. Ms Gorman's role is to co-ordinate these things. I agree with her that there needs to be somewhere where this is centrally co-ordinated but I believe that Government support would stifle it. What is the necessity for it? If there are people who need and people who want to offer it is a mistake to involve Government. It is a question of people with a need targeting people who have a resource. Keep the Government out of it would be my attitude.
There are possibilities for Government funding. The dormant accounts fund was mentioned. Organisations could make applications to funds such as the sports capital funds. The Bank of Ireland in Cabinteely is in my own constituency and I am aware of what it does but I would be happy to take up the offer of a tour of the other organisations that are working here. That would give the members of the committee a better understanding of what happens so that it can be promoted and we can use our offices to extend involvement in it by community organisations and, more particularly, by the business organisations because that is where the resources are and they are keen.
The question of what will happen to the volunteers when the Special Olympics is a valid one. I have no doubt people will feel a sense of emptiness afterwards because there is this great spirit around. I hate to say with the exception of Clonmel but I suppose they have their reasons and I should not really comment. The organisation of the Special Olympics has been tremendous and a wonderful example of what people can do in the voluntary sector. We should try to harness that support. I hope a higher awareness of Business in the Community might bring people into the business-community sector.
Deputy O'Malley's point about heightened awareness is a good one. I did not know Business in the Community existed. The only big company I know which is involved in this area is Intel, which has people working in the community.
When we speak of encouraging volunteers are we talking about volunteering nine to five or after working hours? I see that the cost to business has been factored in. Should we not encourage after hours volunteering so that there is no direct financial cost? Could the witnesses comment on that?
What is preventing people from getting involved? Is it red tape or insurance costs? Do we complicate things? It was made very simple to get involved in the Special Olympics. Big business people were driving it, everything was well organised, there was a direct goal and a fixed timescale. When one tries to organise a local parade or festival red tape seems to be put in the way of everything one tries to do. Does Business in the Community get that feeling?
Very often, it is the businesses which are making loads of money and those which are making very little which are interested in getting involved in the community. The ones which are at the top feel good about themselves and can afford to do it and the ones which are at the bottom do it to try to get some publicity and feedback. Those in the middle are often complacent and do not see why they should bother getting involved. That is my experience of being involved with community groups looking for support from businesses.
I have found that if the chief executive officer gets involved the staff will automatically follow whereas if a top manager tries to push the junior staff out to become involved in a community project while not doing so himself or herself the purpose is defeated.
Should voluntary involvement in community projects be part of the school curriculum from an early age? Would this ingrain the idea of volunteering in young people while they are growing up? Volunteerism is declining. People are more inclined to turn on a Playstation than to get involved in the community.
Is it the job of Business in the Community to make recommendations to this committee? Is the public sector falling down and do public bodies need the same encouragement as the organisation is giving to the private sector?
I am sure the example of my own brother is mirrored throughout the country. He works for 40 or 50 hours a week and drives for 20 or 30 hours. No sane person has time after that to become involved in volunteering. That is a major problem. Is the delegation putting forward recommendations to change that? People return home late in the evening like white ghosts and have no interest in helping anyone. We need to change that as a society.
I join my colleagues in welcoming both members of the delegation and congratulating them on the work they have done to date and the win-win concept that they have developed. It is particularly pleasant to welcome a group to the House for whom finance is not by any means at the top of the agenda. It is rather unusual in my brief experience in the House.
As regards the action points in the presentation - the three points we should move on positively and immediately - politicians will always look to the bottom line and will be delighted to get involved in No. 3 of the action plan immediately. We should move to arrange the tour as suggested and take the matter up with the Department to clarify the situation regarding a policy on volunteering. We should move on those and I formally suggest we do so immediately.
I will make a general observation on the overall situation. It strikes me that the activity is mainly project-by-project and project driven and we have heard references to the Special Olympics and how positive a project that is for volunteerism in Ireland. What strikes me about that and the huge degree of public willingness to become involved to the tune of 34,000 volunteers is that, as was mentioned earlier, that it is for a fixed period but there is also no administration involved for the volunteer. It is a situation where one rolls up one's sleeves and goes and does it. The administrative function is being dealt with by Bank of Ireland and an administrative structure. My observation of community involvement is that, because of certain developments in particular areas and standard requirements such as insurance, there is a higher level of requirement for administration in any voluntary work which is a major turn off for people. If they get involved in administration they tend to get sucked in more and more. Invariably in small groups, they are working on their own and there is little pleasure or satisfaction to be got from it and it becomes a huge chore. The attraction of voluntary involvement in any organisation is a change of environment, working on a different type of work and working with different people to produce a result at the end of the day.
While there are all the difficulties which Deputy English referred to regarding time pressures and the changing social structure, does the delegation have a view in terms of the future development of its organisation? Do the witnesses see it leaning towards the provision of long-term administrative facilities for voluntary organisations in particular communities rather than the project-by-project approach they appear to be taking at present. I can see difficulties with it but I see it as an area with significant potential.
I welcome the delegation. I am from County Longford and the voluntary organisations in Longford are too numerous to mention. There is an unbelievable number of volunteers in the county who are doing great work. I welcome what the delegation is doing. It is a great idea and it is wonderful to think that corporate social responsibility matters. We wish the organisation well. Small businesses, shopkeepers and so on, have lead the way in this for many years. They have been doing it for the last 100 years. The corporate sector was slow to cotton on to this and do it. Over the years it was sad to see security vans arrive every week and take money out of the multinationals and financial institutions and bring it elsewhere while every small shopkeeper was supporting his or her voluntary organisations. It was difficult to get any financial or other commitment from any of these organisations because the budget has been exhausted for the present time. It is great to think that it is now hands on. This is a necessity which is important for the advancement of the country and it is a significant advantage to corporations because this is the way to go. I am pleased to see that people like Mr. Trethowen are leading the way in what is a benefit to his business as to the local community. The day has now come when it is unacceptable to take all and give nothing. We must all share and share alike. We cannot expect people to monopolise everything. It has to be handed out. I wish the witnesses well and have no doubt they will be successful. I particularly like the aspect that they are hands on and that they are working and active within the community. People do not just want someone to hand them a cheque, they want people physically involved too. I do not have a crystal ball, but I can see they are going to be self-financing from the corporate sector, which I welcome.
Deputy English said that he hoped that the delegation would go out and do this. NIB has released Mr. Trethowen for a certain amount of time, for which I congratulate it. I also congratulate Bank of Ireland because of the number of people involved in the Special Olympics. I do not like singling people out but there are a tremendous number of people involved at that level. From my own perspective, I like to think that whatever blips there are on the horizon for the Special Olympics, there have already been quite a few blips which they have got over. I hope it will be the massive success we all think it will be. We will follow up this meeting with a visit to some of the projects. I invite Mr. Trethowen to respond to members' comments.
I will respond generically. From the business community, it will be a strategic response to a number of the points which were made.
In response to Deputy O'Malley, the business and community ethos in Ireland is precisely the same as across the water. We are not asking for intervention. Business is coming to the table as a supply side and we have skills and a pool of willingness to be involved and be there. That brings me to a generic answer to the questions. One of the reasons the Bank of Ireland Special Olympics initiative has been so successful is that it has a developed demand side and that is where we believe the policy needs to be taken and developed. Businesses can produce good volunteers with good skills to transfer either specific business skills or assistance with projects, but we are finding the demand side is not well developed in Ireland.
I did some work for Business in the Community in the North where there is a queue of community groups which organised and know exactly what they want. It is actually meeting the demand which is the problem there whereas it is the flip side here where there seems to be more supply than demand. They do not ask for financial support or Government interventions into the corporate side but for us to help them to articulate their needs better to the business community or to community groups.
Somebody asked about public sector involvement. There are as many skills to be transferred out of the public sector as there are out of the private sector to the voluntary sector. I know the Central Bank has a volunteer programme which is adding value to communities. This has been a generic answer to a number of the queries that have been made. Ms Gorman will have some specific responses.
I have a few. I want to reiterate what Mr. Trethowan said. As an organisation, Business in the Community is working fine. We are funded through corporate membership and we are not looking for money or for Government to get involved with what we do.
When I started three years ago I thought the difficult thing would be to get businesses to get involved, but the will is there. The problem is that every time a business goes to the local area and says it would like to get involved, the community sector says thanks very much and looks for money. When the business says it is not talking about money and asks how it can provide the help they need the answer is again about money. We say "no" and ask for what do they want the money. The reply is often that they want to buy in a consultant to do a marketing plan for them. We ask would they like a marketing director to help them and they ask why they would do that. That process goes on continually. What we are trying to get across to the community sector is that not only do they get the benefit of the skill but they get the benefit of the individual's network because that follows. It is a cultural exchange because what the business people give they also get back from the community sector.
As an organisation we are just concerned with one area - employer-supported volunteering. The reason we are here is to lobby the committee on the Tipping the Balance report which took two years to put together. That two years looked at all the issues surrounding volunteering in Ireland. As was mentioned by Senator Ó Murchú, "volunteering" is a word that does not sit easily with everybody in the country. Volunteers are not a race of individuals but just people out there.
The Tipping the Balance report impacts on all the issues concerning volunteering. A significant number of issues were brought up but I want to reiterate the policy issues we are talking about. We are talking about supporting volunteering, about regulating and protecting volunteering, about police checks, insurance and all those issues. We are talking about developing and promoting volunteering such as raising the profile and getting more people involved. We are talking about addressing the barriers to volunteering such as the fact that working life has changed in Ireland. There has been a huge change in the face of work but the volunteer using organisations have not kept up with that change.
Volunteers are everybody. They are people who are in employment, people employed in the home, people not in regular employment, people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and people from everywhere across the board. What a lot of community and voluntary organisations forget is that they need to adapt their policies around involving volunteers in order to suit those changing areas. We are talking about targeting volunteers and about getting particular types of people involved, whether employers, employees or those other groups I mentioned. We are also talking about profiling the image of volunteering.
I want to point out a table on page 93 in the report. This page shows a table that examines six different countries across Europe. It looks at whether they have a policy development in place and whether they have an infrastructure to support volunteering. If they have an infrastructure it looks at how many per head of population support the infrastructure. As can be seen Ireland does not rate very well there.
With us today as members of the task force on community involvement in Business in the Community we have Sandra Velthuis from Volunteering Ireland and Tricia Nolan from the Tallaght Volunteer Bureau. They are experts in the field of volunteering across the board. I can only speak from the employer-supported volunteering side but they were also members, as I was, of the National Committee on Volunteering and they put a huge amount of information forward. The issue of the declining numbers of volunteers was raised yet I know that both of them have large numbers on their current registers. I was at a conference in Galway where one of the staff of Volunteering Ireland spoke and it currently has 200 individuals on its books seeking volunteering opportunities. These volunteers are not coming through us but are just people who have come forward to access the service. Again, the problem is accessing the opportunities for them.
Both of those organisations work with developing community organisations in adopting best practice. Volunteering Ireland has developed a volunteering charter. It is a charter of rights which provides that the volunteer can expect to be treated in such a manner within an organisation and that an organisation can expect the volunteer to treat it in such a way. It has been adopted nationally at this stage. A question was asked earlier about elements within the policy I have just mentioned and whether there was best practice. The answer is "yes". There is significant best practice but it is ad hoc. It needs to be drawn together so that a greater impact can be made on the sector. I just mention Nell Kavanagh who co-ordinates the Bank of Ireland programme in Cabinteely
The types of projects different companies get involved in are wide ranging. As an organisation Business in the Community works within the company. We work only within the company to assist it to put the policies, practices and budget together to support it. What we do is hand-hold them to make the connections within the community but ultimately we walk away. Our objective is to make ourselves redundant with those companies so that they then create their own networks and context. That is where the difficulty is. As John said, there is a supply side going forward but the demand is not doing so. The demand side asks why the business wants to get involved and why it is not giving money. It cannot get around that mindset.
I reiterate what Bank of Ireland is doing in Cabinteely Here again we are just talking about people and not money. Individuals are not only going forward giving business skills. Also, four times during the year they get a wide-ranging group of 30 to 40 staff members, from director level right down to cleaners and gardeners, and they go out and completely regenerate a project in one day. One of the first ones they did was in Cabinteely community college where they planted a seeing garden for children with sight problems who were in school. They did that in one day. It was a challenge like one of those real life television programmes and was very successful.
Trying to find that opportunity is extremely difficult. One might think that people would queue up for that help but they do not. Our role is therefore difficult because we must try not just to work with the business but to capacity build in the community which is not our role.
We are here today to say that all the answers are in the report Tipping the Balance. I know this because I worked on the sub-committee which put the report together. It is currently with the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. We have written to all the Ministers who have all said it is under consideration. I know there have been two parliamentary questions asked. Hopefully, what we are trying to do today is to spur further movement on the policy development side. We are saying that maybe funding might be difficult to access but asking that we start the policy development now because it is needed.
How closely is Business in the Community working with IBEC, the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland and rotary clubs across the country? I have noticed that at times rotary clubs and chambers of commerce sponsor certain projects. IBEC has an overall approach to this issue. I understand from where Deputy Glennon is coming regarding projects. I find that projects are area specific; there are different projects in Tallaght than in another part of the country. It could consist of a small group of volunteers trying to set up a local craft industry and in another area it might be someone trying to set up a group to combat drug abuse, for instance. There will be a diversity of projects across the country. The involvement of the chambers of commerce, IBEC and the rotary and lions clubs is very important. How do you connect with those organisations because they have been doing this work in the past?
The chief executive of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, Seán Dunne, and a representative of IBEC are on our board of directors.
I am very interested in the last point raised about the regeneration project because a few of us could do with a regeneration project every so often. I know from my contacts with the Special Olympics that there are a significant number of those 34,000 who want to continue on after the end of June. It is very important that these people are mobilised and not let slip away. I guarantee that this committee will pursue the Minister regarding the Tipping the Balance report and ask him his position on policy development on volunteers.
I have one other question. Are you oriented towards Dublin and what is your regional spread? As the executive body do you go out to different parts of the country to promote your philosophy?
Yes. We are a national organisation. Yesterday I was in Belfast, next Tuesday I will be in Cashel and the following Wednesday I will be in Cork, if that answers the question. I travel around the country a lot.
Has Ms Gorman gone to Kerry yet?
I might be on my way.
We will ask the Minister his position regarding the policy. It is timely in this year of the disabled which has provided a good springboard for the issue of volunteerism. I thank you and your colleagues for your presentation. I wish you success in launching the programme around the country. It will be up to people like ourselves to come back to you and help you to help us.
