The Taoiseach has named the membership of the new Task Force on Active Citizenship.
The body is designed to determine how to promote greater citizen participation in communities and in society
The Task Force will be chaired by Mary Davis, formerly director of the Special Olympics, and includes outgoing president of the GAA Seán Kelly, former TD and minister Bobby Molloy, Archdeacon of Dublin the Venerable David Pierpoint and David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
The task force will report in six months time on ways people can participate in the main areas of civic, community, cultural, occupational and recreational life.
Mr Ahern said "We need to identify and understand how public policy helps and hinders active engagement.
We need to identify practical steps to encourage more of our people to become involved and to stay involved in the life of their own community."
