Citizens urged to devote 1% of time to volunteering

IRISH people should devote two hours a week to volunteering work in their community, a new advisory group has recommended.

The report of the Task Force on Active Citizenship has made a number of key recommendations on how Irish people can increase their involvement in civic, community, sporting and youth organisations.

The key proposals of the group — which is chaired by the former head of the Special Olympics, Mary Davis — includes the creation of a National Presidential Citizen Aware programme, a formal citizenship ceremony for new Irish citizens.

While an ESRI survey revealed that volunteering has actually increased over the past five years, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, yesterday said that it was clear that there were many organisations and groups which were encountering difficulties.

Ms Davis said the role of the Task Force had not been to artificially coerce people into volunteering.

“We are just encouraging people to give 1% of their time. What we are trying to do is to help and to facilitate that engagement.”