Volunteers 'save the Government millions'

Volunteers save the Government millions of euro every year, and should be recognised for their efforts, Volunteer Ireland said today.

The organisation warned that the deadline for nominations to their Volunteer of the Year competition closes today.

Their figures show that in the last 2½ years, 34,107 volunteers, 4,173 volunteer-involving organisations and 15,343 vacancies contributed 1,037,069 hours of their time at a value to the economy of €22.7m.

Kate McDonagh of Volunteer Ireland said that the country would be lost without them.

"Volunteers don't really get thanks, they certainly don't do it for the money, obviously," she said.

"We really want to create this campaign as a way of saying thanks on a national scale to those remarkable people that are doing wonderful work around the place."