Where the culture of volunteerism is strong, society is also strong, President Mary McAleese said yesterday at the launch in Dublin Castle of an initiative to encourage more volunteers to help those with disabilities.
RehabCare, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, is looking for hundreds of volunteers to enhance its existing national network of community-based services. These provide more than 2.5 million hours to some 3,000 people with disabilities each year.
Mrs McAleese noted that it had been a very exciting and dynamic decade for the organisation.
She said when we talked about the ambition to have a "fully inclusive" society it had to mean something and be more than words on a page.
"There are 3,000 people whose lives have been fundamentally, cathartically changed by the existence of RehabCare," she said. "RehabCare quite frankly makes the difference between simply enduring life and enjoying life."
Describing as "extraordinary" what individuals got back from volunteerism, Mrs McAleese also expressed her hope that people from all walks of life would get involved in the activities of RehabCare. "In launching this volunteering programme, it [ RehabCare] is acknowledging that the role of the volunteer is going to be crucial."
RehabCare's volunteer programme, which will operate from its 38 centres around Ireland, is open to anyone over 18. Volunteers can spend anything from an hour a week providing support to RehabCare, and will receive full training.
Volunteer activities can be hugely diverse,RehabCare chief executive Dr Angela Kerins said, ranging from cookery, art and sport, to literacy skills and drama lessons.
"Voluntary activity in Ireland is enormous with more than 500,000 involved on a weekly basis," she said. "It is estimated that the annual replacement cost of voluntary activity in Ireland is €1.9 billion. A tiny fraction of that is all we need to make life-changing differences to huge numbers of people with disabilities."
Several well-known personalities from the sport and fashion worlds attended yesterday's launch, including Republic of Ireland soccer manager Steve Staunton, former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey and RTÉ presenter Caroline Morahan.
Along with other prominent personalities, they have agreed to undertake volunteer work for the organisation in the coming months in their specialist fields.
Those interested in volunteering should contact www.rehabcare.ie