FollowThe events of the past year have underlined the enormous role played in Ireland by volunteers and by community organisations. There are an estimated 29,000 community and voluntary organisations and one in four Irish adults engage in voluntary activity of some sort in their community.
Ranging from large charities and institutions with budgets of hundreds of millions of euro to local tidy towns committees with budgets of hundreds of euro, from national organisations such as the GAA with tens of thousands of volunteers to local development committees with just a handful, the non-profit sector makes up a significant portion of the Irish economy and makes a huge contribution to Irish society.
I will work to ensure that the promotion of active citizenship becomes more than just a slogan for the EU by supporting them in terms of funding and training and in particular by reducing the regulatory burden that currently uses up so much volunteer time.
