Many of those who volunteer their time for good causes are probably unaware that the United Nations has designated 2001 its International Year of Volunteers. But even though an early blast of publicity seems to have fizzled out halfway through the year, a number of projects are keeping the spirit of volunteer activity alive.

One of them is Volunteer Centre Fingal, the first volunteer centre in the Republic to be funded by a local authority. With offices in Swords and Blanchardstown in north Co Dublin, it aims to match those who wish to do voluntary work with a wide range of agencies that need them.

The project, one of Fingal County Council's millennium projects, was awarded a one-off grant of £150,000 two years ago under the centenary community awards scheme of the Department of the Environment and Local Government.

When he opened the centre, Noel Dempsey, the Minister for the Environment, described volunteering as an essential part of a democratic society. Even so, it's a surprise to find that an estimated one-third of Irish adults are regularly involved in voluntary work.

"The traditional image is of people involved in helping the elderly or the sick, but voluntary activity is quite wide-ranging," says Cahir O'Byrne, development officer with Volunteer Centre Fingal. "There are groups like the community games, or even summer projects, where people might volunteer for just a week in the summer. There's an enormous amount of volunteering opportunities out there." He points to the many men and women across the country who give their time week in, week out, to help out with junior soccer and GAA activities.

In essence, the new centre aims to enable people to do voluntary work and to promote and support organisations who use volunteers. Some 60 volunteers have signed up since February, about 16 of whom have found suitable placements.

"Our difficulty is getting organisations on board, but the one thing the centre has seen most clearly is that there's a good demand from individuals to give their services. Our plan is now to target as many organisations as possible and to get a wider variety of projects, such as environmental projects, to suit the needs of volunteers," says O'Byrne.

Some organisations, he believes, may find the form-filling a little daunting. Some bureaucracy is inevitable, however, to ensure the needs of the volunteer, as well as those of the voluntary agency, are met.

Some organisations are also wary of being assigned volunteers who might be "unsuitable", but O'Byrne emphasises that thorough background checks are carried out on all volunteers.

So who's volunteering? Some young people find they have time on their hands and wish to fill it in a useful way. A number of foreign students have signed up with a view to smoothing integration into the community and making new friends, says O'Byrne. Retired people have also come forward.

Mary O'Loughlin is one of the latter two years ago.

"I always kept myself occupied and I always worked, and I thought I would like to do something to help people and to put something back into the community," she says. She was already a volunteer driver for the local Meals on Wheels service; now Volunteer Centre Fingal has linked her up with Accord and other organisations.

Michael Gaines (21), who is single and lives with his parents in St Margaret's, has found a placement with the Portmarnock Integrated Arch Club, a social club for children and young adults with intellectual and physical disabilities.

"A friend gave me one of their flyers because I had been looking to do volunteer work. I have been trying to sign up for volunteer work since I came back from Australia last year: I needed something to help me settle."

Gaines, who works shifts at Tesco's computer operations and distribution centre, has given up a night's kung-fu training to attend the Thursday sessions at the Arch club and is thoroughly enjoying the new challenge.

Debbie O'Reilly (26), who lives in Drogheda with a partner and employment scheme, linking up with the volunteer centre when it was set up. She volunteers as a reader for a talking newspaper for visually impaired people, distributed fortnightly by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland.

Another volunteer, Paula Gibbons (32) from Swords, is married with no children. She was made redundant by Motorola last March and is taking time off while waiting for a place on a training course.

Volunteer Centre Fingal, which she came across while walking through Swords village, gave her an opportunity to do some work with the local Citizens Information Centre, and she will also help with a youth summer project next month.

She would like to get back to work, but has had her fill of shift work and hopes to find a nine-to-five job. "I asked myself after seven-and-a-half years with Motorola: what have I done with my time? You couldn't even take up a course in the evenings or get further education because you would miss every second week with shift work."

She plans to move away from the manufacturing industry and would like to train a new area such as counselling.

The organisations that have benefited from the efforts of Volunteer Centre Fingal have nothing but praise for it and the new helpers. Orla Byrne, a youth worker with the Irish Wheelchair Association, says: "it's extremely difficult to source volunteers without relying on your friends all the time. Granted, we've only had two, but they are two volunteers who have been really excellent. It's very hard to find people because nobody really wants to volunteer any more ... The economy at the moment has 100 per cent taken away from volunteering. When you volunteer, you meet new people and make new friends. But nobody seems to want to do it now."

Anne English, community services manager with Prosper Fingal, a training organisation for people with disabilities, is also delighted with the volunteers who have signed up for care work.

She is happy that the volunteers' bona fides have been checked out by the volunteer centre and that this gives agencies such as Prosper Fingal a safety net.

Using volunteers is a new departure for her organisation, and it promises great benefits.

"Volunteers are there because they want to be, and that makes a big difference," she says.

Michael Gaines echoes the feeling. "Part of me wants to do this with my life Volunteer Centre Fingal can be contacted at 01-8904377 or vol@fingalcoco.ie