"Today, when the scarcest resource of all is time, this role of active participation is being devolved to fewer and fewer people. In the process, we all risk being impoverished, especially those who opt out and leave the responsibilities of citizenship to others."
With these words Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced the appointment of the Task Force on Active Citizenship last week. It is to review trends in citizen participation here and elsewhere, examine relevant experience of the organisations involved and recommend how more engagement can be helped and encouraged.
These are worthwhile objectives and the 20 members have an important task before them. They are a powerful group, drawn from well-established organisations with a lot of accumulated experience about volunteering, community activism and lobbying. Anyone who watched Mary Davis - the taskforce's chairwoman - organise the Special Olympics or Seán Kelly's work as president of the GAA, can be satisfied that two of the major volunteering examples in contemporary Irish life are well represented.
Their activities help to keep this country in the middle or upper middle ranks of such comparative international experience, and this should not be lost sight of. Mr Ahern and other political and civic leaders concerned about the decline in social capital are worried about adverse trends which could undermine such commitments. Undoubtedly time scarcity is prominent among them. It increasingly deprives communities and individuals of active citizenship and a strong civic culture.
Over the last few years a series of reports on the subject has established a strong platform of analysis and information on which to base policy recommendations. An impressive report from the National Economic and Social Council in 2003 included 24 recommendations for change in public policy to counteract the potential decline in civic engagement and to promote active citizenship, including the designation of a specific department to co-ordinate strategic thinking and policy on social capital. Yet they were met with a deafening silence from the Government.
We should avoid talking up this subject rhetorically without action to alleviate it. Doing so might make good political sense running into an election in which the pressure on communities and individuals created by social conditions encouraged by Government policy will be a real issue. These include growing individualisation in taxation and other policies, social atomisation, health inequalities, underfunded public transport and a growing sense of democratic disempowerment. Such issues should be at the centre of debate on active citizenship.