Taoiseach: “It’s one of the most noble things… to be a volunteer in such circumstances”

The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, began his speech to nearly 600 attendees, many of them volunteers, attending The Wheel’s Summit in Croke Park, on May 28, by speaking about volunteers working in Gaza.

“I’ve listened a lot in recent times to medical volunteers who work with various organisations (such as) Médecins Sans Frontières and others,” he said. “Their testimony has been heart-rending.”

He said the conditions the surgeons were operating brought home “the barbaric nature of the war that Israel is waging on the people of Gaza.”

“And I think it’s one of the most noble things to do in the world, is to be a volunteer in such circumstances. Volunteers with UN agencies, or volunteers with various non-governmental organisations who are doing their best to provide the basic necessities of life.

“Many (volunteers) have been murdered in pursuit of their duties on the Red Crescent side, and we should remember them, and we should be very conscious of the enormous sacrifices they and their families are making, which speaks to the value of community and volunteerism,” he said.

On challenges facing communities here, the Taoiseach acknowledged the crucial role played by community organisations during earlier crises – such as when the pandemic struck, when Russia began its full-scale war against Ukraine and community groups here reacted swiftly to welcome refugees fleeing that war and others.

Response to Storm Eowyn

He recalled hurricane-like Storm Eowyn earlier this year and said the Government planned to develop a system to better resource local community networks for future extreme weather events.

“It was a storm like no other in terms of the degree of isolation it created very, very quickly – in terms of absence of electricity, absence of water, but also connection in terms of the mobile system and so on, and that sense of isolation created huge issues. And again different organisations on the ground came together to become a focal point for many people,” he said.

“We will witness more extreme storms (and) we have to build up our infrastructural resilience. On top of that, we have to build up, what we might term a voluntary community resilience as well, that’s sufficiently resourced, and that’s something that we’re going to continue to work on,” he said.

Future plans

The Taoiseach pointed to plans to invest €1 billion over the next ten years in the Shared Island Fund – which seeks to harness the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to enhance cooperation, connection and mutual understanding on the island and engage with all communities and traditions.

He said: “It’s the people-to-people connections I’m very interested in, community-to-community, non-political.”

He also spoke about key priorities of the Government, including disability supports, access to school places, tackling child poverty and supporting the well-being of young people. “In the forthcoming budget I will be focusing on a very specific and targeted response to the issues of child poverty,” he said.