October 2007: Report on Active Citizenship among business community presented to Taoiseach

• Report sent as key element of Ireland's first ever Corporate Responsibility Week

DUBLIN, October 19th 2007: A report sent today to An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), the country's leading corporate responsibility advisory group, shows a significant move by Irish companies, towards active community involvement.

The report, “A Profile of Citizenship Activities of Business in the Community Ireland Members” sent to the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and to the Taskforce on Active Citizenship, is the final part of Corporate Responsibility Week, a nationwide initiative spearheaded by the BITCI to promote responsible business practices in Ireland. It provides a brief profile of some of the citizenship activities BITCI member companies are involved in.

Tina Roche, Chief Executive, Business in the Community Ireland, said: “A primary service of BITCI is to guide and support top Irish companies through a process of strategising their community involvement programmes. Through our work in this area our experience is that Irish companies are very active in their communities and open to facilitating a flow of staff skills from business to the local community.”

Tina Roche adds: “Taking a strategic approach to corporate community involvement means that companies adopt a model which combines Corporate Giving, Skills Transfer and Resource Allocation into one programme targeting identified social need. By measuring the impact of their skills, time and resources invested in their communities or causes business can make a significant impact on real social inclusion.“

BITCI's inaugural Corporate Responsibility Week kicked off earlier this week with a ‘Seeing is Believing' tour in the Cork area, where a group of business leaders received a tour of several community initiatives taking place in the region. The week long programme of activities also included a forum on environmental good practice with Minister Gormley and a seminar on stress in the workplace.

In addition, during the week, some of the most well known companies in Ireland such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pfizer, Janssen, Wyeth and National Irish Bank all conducted a number of internal activities amongst its staff to drive awareness of its corporate responsibility activities.

For further information, contact Moira Horgan, Marketing Communications Manager at 01-8743812, 086-1722105 or mhorgan@bitc.ie