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Big Society Agenda

I absolutely agree with that. That is part of the point I am trying to make in respect of the Minister’s comments. The concept and principles of the big society are not new to Northern Ireland. In many ways, people there have led the rest of us in their community organisation, social enterprises, faith, support and, notwithstanding the many well documented problems, in helping one’s neighbour. As some hon. Members have said, those organisations cannot be a shield for the Government’s cuts and the impact on the block grant in terms of what the Northern Ireland Executive are trying to do. Let us look at some of the facts from the recent Northern Ireland Audit Office report, regarding the characteristics of the voluntary and community sector. I think Northern Ireland should be proud. When we talk about applying the principles of the big society to Northern Ireland, we should be humble and learn from Northern Ireland. Notwithstanding the problems we all know about, we in the rest of the UK can learn a great deal from some of the principles applied there. There were around 4,700 active organisations in 2008. The sector’s total income was £570 million, with £259 million of that coming from Government. The year 2006-07 was the first in which the sector’s earned income exceeded one half of its total income. The sector employed a paid work force of almost 27,000 people. This is the point that I am making to the Minister. That paid work force means that more and more people can volunteer. They are sometimes the vehicle for that volunteering and support. If we strip that away, we reduce the opportunities for people to work together in exactly the way that the Minister described. According to the Northern Ireland Audit Office, some 88,000 people volunteered on a formal basis in the sector, but only one in six organisations was part of a larger organisation with a UK, all-Ireland or international structure. So Northern Ireland has much to teach us. There is much that we can learn from Northern Ireland about how to bring people together to support others in the community.