Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Throughout the local development sector there is grave concern at the savage cutbacks that have been imposed on Pobal and its staff with resulting negative impacts on local development companies and partnerships.

The establishment of the ADM company under the partnership process was a significant step in delivering necessary centralised and efficient back-up to hundreds of local development projects across Ireland, with which the Minister and I are familiar. The evolution of ADM into Pobal under the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs was a milestone in creating an accountable and more effective local voluntary and social economy sector. The organisation has received a great deal more work in terms of invigilation and an increased accounting role as a result of the recent changes introduced in the management of such companies.

The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs has, under budget 2009, imposed a savage 33% cut in the administration and support costs of social inclusion programmes which are managed by Pobal, with a clear indication that even more severe cuts of up to 50% will apply in 2010. As I understand it, the result will be the loss of almost 100 jobs in Pobal.

I am informed by Pobal staff representatives that 74 redundancies are now being sought from a workforce of 250. I am aware also of course that 90 Pobal workers have less than two year's service and that their work has developed as a result of recent changes introduced in the organisation. Clearly, these extraordinary cuts in a relatively small organisation seem totally disproportionate, even in the context of the overall severe budgetary cuts being imposed for 2009. The Department's justification is to enable the maintenance of frontline services but the key liaison support and development functions performed by Pobal with local agencies will clearly be damaged by these cutbacks. The result will be major cuts at local level in supports for effective and transparent delivery of funds to communities. Cuts will also affect specialist support staff in employment, community development, and educational disadvantage, including disadvantaged groups, Travellers, lone parents, prisoners and citizens recovering from addiction.

Similarly, cuts will affect the connection between Departments and beneficiaries at local level, in addition to their impact on evaluation and research capacities, the production of strategy guides and good proactive tool kits, and in necessary networking meetings of partnership staff, and other cross-learning events.

The local development social inclusion, LDSIP, programme supports local agencies such as partnerships to address complex problems of inequality, poverty and social inclusion. The Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, and the Department of Finance value for money review of the LDSIP clearly identified the need for ongoing "sophisticated" evaluation and ongoing guidance and technical support for local groups. However, the Department has said it is employing the Centre for Effective Services, CES, to design a successor programme to the LDSIP. I understand that the CES received funding from Atlantic Philanthropies in addition to funding from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Why could the work not have been carried out by Pobal? There does not appear to have been any tendering process for the work that will now be carried out by the Centre for Effective Services. I am further informed that Pobal was not given a chance to tender for the project, which seems central to its statutory remit and for a task in which it has built up 16 years of valuable experience. The VFM to which I referred identified areas for improvement in Pobal but it did not question the fundamental capacity, integrity or efficiency of the organisation. How can its vital public support and invigilation role in local development be effectively delivered with the massive cut of 100 jobs?

Ireland is plunging into a severe recession, partly due to gross errors by the Government since 1997. Unemployment may rise to in excess of 10%. The impact may be most severe in disadvantaged and low income communities. It seems crazy therefore to impose this level of cutbacks in Pobal that will have a knock-on effect on important local employment and enterprise programmes across the country that are served by Pobal.

The Ceann Comhairle is aware that I have long experience as a community activist with local development projects. I am a long-time director of Coolock Development Council and of the Northside Partnership and a number of its related companies. As a community director, it is always reassuring to know that Pobal exists and that high standards of invigilation and audit are being maintained. The new light touch invigilation proposed by the Minister, including an end to quarterly reports that must be presented to and invigilated by Pobal, will result in weakening the system of accountability, which may have disastrous consequences. I am also a member of the Committee of Public Accounts, which is currently invigilating a major State agency where it appears lapses occurred.

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