Three panellists at The Wheel’s Summit in Croke Park, Dublin, on May 28, were asked what they would do with the community and voluntary sector if they had a magic wand.
Alexandrina Najmowicz, secretary general of the European Civil Society Forum, replied:
“Well, while people are in competition for rights, for access to basic rights and dignity, this puts our democracy at risk because trust in institutions is at risk.
“What we need is to be able to trust (and) to do that, we need dialogue among us, we need to (talk) with the increasingly polarised communities, and we definitely need to (talk) with institutions so that we can change the current policies.”
Elaine Teague, CEO of the Disability Federation of Ireland, said, “I would bring certainty around funding requirements, because then we can deliver to the people that we support, we can deliver on our commitment to our communities.”
Irish Times journalist Emmet Malone, a guest speaker, said, “I don’t understand why there are certain elements of the Community and Voluntary sector that are not run by the state.”
He said it was great that small organisations and community groups are flexible, because communities would otherwise be “waiting an endless amount of time for state supports”.
If he had a magic wand he would “divide the sector into stuff that should be run by the state and take that into the state sector and I would properly fund the rest of it over the long term.”
The Wheel’s summit was held on May 28 in Croke Park, Dublin.
