Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’m delighted to welcome you to Dublin and to Trinity College.
To those delegates who have travelled to Ireland perhaps for the first time, I wish you a Cead Míle Fáilte, a hundred thousand welcomes. I hope you are enjoying your visit.
I would like to thank the One Foundation and Social Entrepreneurs Ireland for giving me the opportunity to speak to you about the important role that philanthropy has to play in Irish society.
Only last July I had the honour of launching the Report of Ireland’s Forum on Philanthropy and Fundraising.
That report sets out our goal to drive the growth of philanthropic giving in Ireland.
I spoke then, as I do now, with pride about Ireland’s rich culture of giving.
We have such a strong tradition of voluntary activity in Ireland; it reaches into every community, into every aspect of Irish life.
The not-for-profit sector in Ireland employs over 100,000 people.
In wages and salaries alone that’s a contribution of €3.7bn to the Irish economy.
Last year, in the midst of an economic crisis, Irish people gave more than €500m to charities and good causes in Ireland.
However, you pose the question "Can we do more to support the change-makers?"
I believe that we can.
I believe that we should.
Ireland faces a huge challenge to get our economy moving, restore confidence and create jobs.
It is also duty to seek out new ways to deal with the social consequences of the economic crisis.
As an island nation we have embraced the global economy, successfully attracting investment from every corner of the world.
We need to be just as open to new ideas from abroad for social enterprise.
I believe Ireland has much to learn from the range of projects that are happening internationally.
In March of this year I attended a conference of social entrepreneurs organised by ChangeNation. I was inspired by the ideas they had gathered from around the world for positive social change. Many of these are now being implemented in Ireland.
You will have heard earlier today from Paul Cartter about his experiences in running the Social Innovation Fund in the United States. This is something that we in Ireland are also looking at creating.
I believe that Public, Private and Voluntary sectors can collaborate in new ways generating innovative approaches to the social problems we face today.
That is why the Irish Government is pursuing a strategy that has been developed by our Forum on Philanthropy and Fundraising.
I am very pleased to say that progress has already been made in developing the recommendations of the Forum.
For example, the Minister for Finance has completed a public consultation process about the tax treatment of charitable donations.
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is developing models for social-impact bonds in Ireland. Our Programme for Government recognised that by thinking outside the box more can be done to finance social interventions by the not for profit sector that can deliver real results.
I know that a range of other initiatives are being implemented through the ongoing work of the Forum and its members.
In conclusion, I believe we all want an Ireland where every citizen feels a strong sense of community.
We need to build on the strong traditions we inherited in Ireland. Everyday people are working to make Ireland a better place to live in, whether that is in community and voluntary bodies or sporting and cultural organisations.
We need to continue to foster this innate sense of community, this spirit of the "meitheal". Government can do a lot to make a better Ireland but it can’t do it all, or do it alone.
We want to unleash the full potential of philanthropy and social enterprise.
And we want to learn about best practice, and import the best ideas, from abroad.
I hope this conference will help you all in that process and wish you well with the remainder of the conference.