Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps the witnesses can confirm that the change to SICAP involves a substantial cut to the funding for community programmes despite the fact we were told there would be no cuts. It is up to €2 million in total and, in Dublin, up to €700,000 across all of the partnership groups. Perhaps the witnesses can elaborate on whether this is true. Local Deputies attended the Cherry Orchard Equine Centre in Ballyfermot to train young people in horseriding skills, looking after horses and stabling skills. Different groups have different sources of funding and this has come out of the blue. They say they will lose all of their current funding from one stream because, in the past, they used the money for administration purposes. Under the rules of SICAP they cannot submit an application if they are using more than 25% of the morning money for funding administration. They cannot apply for money for this year. They will have to negotiate with all of the other funders, juggle money around and move the administration costs. It was easy to decide that certain money would cover the administration costs and other money would cover the rest of the programme. If people get money from the HSE, they cannot decide to change it and put it in somewhere else because of the evaluation and monitoring. In the recent past, every grant must be spent exactly as it is described. Ten or 15 years ago, there was more constructive moving of funds within projects to help develop programmes. Once people did that, they then applied for interim funding and mainstream funding. This seems to be more rigid. When I had discussions with this group, some of it went over my head even though I am on the Local Community and Development Programme, LCDP, and I have been involved in taskforces. There were a lot of acronyms but there was no logic behind it.

Is the cut I mentioned viewed as a cost saving measure? Do some people view it as such? Then it will come on top of a whole range of cuts that Brian Harvey showed, in his detailed report, that the community sectors had been cut to the bone above all sectors in society. Even if funding for the group was standing still without SICAP, would it substantially cut the community programmes?

Representatives of the Canal Communities Partnership, who will hopefully meet local Deputies on Friday, were concerned about the loss of expertise. In the Bluebell area, the witnesses probably know Mr. Tommy Coombes, who is a dynamo. Every community should have someone like him - a person who runs around organising everything. Ms Rita Fagan is also well known by many. Their concern is that they may not get their jobs under the new arrangement but they are also concerned that, even if they get the jobs, it will be substantially different. For example, Tommy will work in Bluebell one day and will be sent to the other end of the partnership area the next day. Some of the tenders in Dublin can apply to two partnership areas.

The witnesses mentioned that they do not have a partnership area at the moment but in my constituency the Rathmines Pembroke partnership area covers Crumlin, Drimnagh and Walkinstown. The original partnership collapsed. If that area was amalgamated with the witnesses' partnership area or with Ballyfermot, it would be a huge area, with almost half the city covered by one structure. There will be a loss of identity if it proceeds like that.