National Volunteering Strategy: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel

I also do not have any inspirational quotes to share but you never know – I might say something inspirational enough that I might be quoted in 50 years, although I doubt it.
When we talk of volunteering we are talking about real people who give up their evenings, weekends and time after work not because they have to but because they want to and they have a passion. I see it every week in Limerick. Our Tidy Towns volunteers are out on a Saturday morning planting flowers and cleaning up towns. I see the GAA coaches standing in the rain with young lads and girls helping them not only with skills but also giving them confidence and a sense of belonging. I see it in community halls, parish groups, heritage committees, meals on wheels drivers and community transport volunteers. All these make rural Ireland what it is. If we are honest, many of our small towns and rural communities would struggle badly without these people. Most of them are not looking for praise. They do not even want to be called volunteers or see themselves as volunteers. They are just helping; that is it. That is why having a national strategy to recognise volunteering is so important. It mattered to say clearly that what they do and the work they do counts and it underpins our society.
However, recognition is only the beginning. If we truly want volunteering to thrive into the future, volunteers themselves must be at the centre of all decisions that are made. Whether it is the governance rules, safeguarding requirements, insurance costs or compliance obligations, we need to ask whether they make it easier or harder for the person who is giving up their time freely because too often, even with good intentions, we can create systems that add pressure to the people whom we rely on.
In rural Ireland especially, volunteering is not optional; it is the backbone of community life. Without it, clubs close, events disappear and social isolation grows. We welcome the strategies that support volunteering but as we move beyond 2025, it needs to be more ambitious. We need properly resourced support for volunteer centres. We need simpler, more practical processes for small community groups that do not have paid staff, only local people doing their best. We need to engage with young people in a way that makes volunteering accessible and worthwhile. Above all, we need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Too many volunteers feel like they are filling out forms instead of coaching teams or organising events. Too many small organisations feel like they are jumping through hoops just to stay compliant. That is not sustainable if we want to continue having volunteer groups. If we want volunteering to thrive, we need to make it easier, not harder, for people to step forward.
The strategy from 2021 to 2025 was an important step and now we need to build on it with sustained funding and genuine engagement from volunteers themselves. This is an issue where we can come together across both Chambers. Supporting volunteers is not party political. It is about community and solidarity because at the end of the day, volunteering truly is the backbone of Ireland, of our towns and villages, of our sporting organisations, of our charities, and of the State itself. If we support that backbone properly, we strengthen Ireland as a whole.
I myself volunteer on the board of a community crèche and for the local GAA club. It is funny because my children have not attended crèche in many years and none of them is in any way interested in the GAA. They asked me, not all that long ago, why I was on a crèche committee and a GAA committee when my children had nothing to do with them, and the only answer I could give was that those committees needed somebody and I had that extra bit of time that I could put in and give them a hand, even if it was only fundraising. I get great fun out of fundraising. I quite enjoy it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24