Madam, - I welcome the Taoiseach's initiative in setting up a task force to promote citizenship participation (The Irish Times, April 15th).
Mr Ahern has come to realise that the quality of life in Ireland will depend on more active citizenship. This announcement is timely, coming early in the European Year of Citizenship through Education.
Confining the notion of citizenship to the holding of a passport is very inadequate. Citizenship carries rights and we are very conscious of this. But citizenship also carries responsibilities. As we have seen in recent elections many people don't even take the responsibility to vote.
However, there are thousands of people who engage in active citizenship without realising it. Citizenship includes improving the local environment in creating tidy towns; it means standing on the sideline on Saturdays encouraging an under-age football team; and what about the neighbour who does meals on wheels? Citizenship takes many forms.
As an organisation working with groups and individuals across different sectors in society we often find people locked into their own narrow worlds and agendas. Different sectors have preconceived ideas about other sectors.
Those in business can be viewed as being greedy and motivated by profit; those in the public sector are perceived as being tied up in red tape; while community and voluntary sector people are often just seen as "do-gooders". Building understanding of other sectors creates the potential for better co-operation in tackling entrenched and complex problems.
We must not be too pessimistic. We do have a reasonably good social partnership in Ireland. Both local and central government increasingly engage in wide consultation before making decisions. There is greater collaboration in the community and voluntary sectors.
In business, social responsibility is seen more and more as a central element of a successful business strategy. I hope the task force on citizenship will build on these positive elements. However, we know from our own work that one of the greatest challenges will be to get people to see beyond their own homes, cars and workplaces. Creating opportunities for individuals to see the bigger picture and find their role within it is an important element in encouraging active citizenship.
One of the scarcest commodities in Irish society today is time. Busy working days and commuting long distances have eaten into people's spare time. We talk about people having "disposable income". The task of greater citizen participation is for people to create more "disposable time".
The real challenge that many of us face is making the time to be active citizens and trusting that we will all reap the benefits if we do. - Yours, etc.,
GERRY RAFTERY, Common Purpose Ireland, Bow Street, Dublin 7.