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Oireachtas comes to Tallaght PDF Print E-mail
Tallaght Echo - 20th May 2004

 The Oireachtas came to Tallaght last week with the visit of a parliamentary deputation to local community projects.

The six member Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs came to see for themselves the work being carried out by two local organisations and hear how their promise is being thwarted by the institutional failure to recognise their full potential.

The delegation, consisting of Senator Brendan Daly, Jim Glennon TD, Cecilia Keaveney TD, Damien English TD, Fiona O'Malley TD and Brian O'Shea TD visited the Jobstown Assisting Drug Dependency (JADD) and the Tallaght Homeless Advice Unit (THAU) and Bank of Ireland in Cabinteely.

Facilitated by Business in the Community Ireland, the committee of deputies and senators heard how if volunteering was taken seriously in Ireland groups such as the BICI could help save the economy millions of Euro.

In Ireland there is one volunteer centre per 900,000 citizens whereas in Europe the figure is one for every 165,000 people, despite the sector being a major contributor to the Irish economy.

As such the BICI brought the committee to see examples where volunteering had worked and showed best why, in their opinion, formal infrastructure was required to safeguard the future.

It is the BICI's primary contention that the good will of the business community can be harnessed by local groups to help them side step many of the costs involved in running their operation in a professional capacity.

Accompanied by members of Volunteer Centres Ireland and representatives of the business community, the Joint Oireachtas Committee first visited JADD to be shown how its partnership with local enterprise has multiple ongoing benefits.

Later, at a visit to the Tallaght Homeless Advice Unit, Chairperson of Volunteer Centres Ireland Tricia Nolan told the committee that the future of many centres around Ireland, including one facility in South Dublin County, is in serious jeopardy due to an ad hoc, lack of funding and a failure by government to develop a clear policy and infrastructure to support volunteering as recommended in the report "Tipping the Balance".

She said: "We exist at a local level becoming the brokers who have the ability to unleash the power of corporates to be citizens in the community."

After hearing how some of the problems of the Tallaght Homeless advice Unit were alleviated through their relationship with Johnson and Johnson, Deputy Ceclilia Keaveny admitted that this concept was not widely appreciated.

She said: "After seeing what we have seen today we will be taking the argument to a higher level."
 
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