Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

— recognises that the community sector is estimated to be worth €6.5 billion to the Irish economy, three times the size of the State's investment, proving that the community and voluntary sector is a cost-effective medium for the provision of many vital services;

— notes that the delivery costs of many of the services currently provided by this sector would be substantially greater if Government departments, the Health Service Executive (HSE) or private companies were to deliver the same level of service directly;

— notes that the community and voluntary sector provides essential services which the State and private sectors are unwilling or unable to provide;

— acknowledges that it is unacceptable for the State to abdicate its own responsibility for the delivery of vital services to the community and voluntary sector without providing adequate support and long-term security of funding;

— condemns the hollowing out of genuine community development by abolishing voluntary boards of management and placing control under partnership programmes which undermines local democracy and the bottom-up approach upon which community development is based;

— notes that the sector provides the equivalent of 50,000 full-time jobs, with large numbers of part-time workers greatly increasing the total number employed;

— recognises and supports the community and voluntary sector's right to engage in advocacy as a valuable contribution to policymaking;

— notes that there are 7,500 charitable, community and voluntary groups providing essential services to children, older people, people with disabilities or ill-health, vulnerable people, drug users, women, immigrants, travellers and other ethnic minority groups;

— commends the sector for being a tireless advocate for communities dealing with some of Ireland's most serious social and economic problems, and for working to empower marginalised communities to apply their own solutions to their own problems;

— recognises the potential of the community and voluntary sector, as both a service provider and an advocate, and further recognises that as unemployment rises and struggling public services are overwhelmed, community organisations are being pushed to fill the gap;

— rejects the disproportionate Government cutbacks inflicted on community and voluntary groups, particularly those which are as a direct result of speaking out against Government policies;

— notes that these cuts are targeting programmes that serve the most vulnerable in our society and deepen existing inequalities despite the acknowledgment in the Programme for Government that the community and voluntary sector has a 'vital role' in tackling poverty and protecting the most vulnerable;

— affirms that the community and voluntary sector needs to participate in decision making and must be able to monitor and challenge Government without fear of repercussions so as to fulfil a watchdog function on the political class;

— calls upon the Government to reverse the cuts in funding to the community and voluntary sector and move towards multi-annual funding in order to allow organisations to plan ahead and end the practice of funding bodies requiring the production of detailed business plans before giving any indication of the size of the budget available for the year in question;

— calls upon the Government to ring-fence €50 million per year from the Dormant Accounts Fund for the community and voluntary sector, ring-fence monies seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) for community development and community based drug projects and introduce a VAT refund scheme for charities;

— calls upon the Government to re-conceptualise and extend the Community Employment (CE) scheme by increasing the number of CE places available, including Special CE schemes;

— acknowledges that social enterprise has the potential to create 5,000 jobs a year and that community and voluntary organisations could benefit from the potential offered by social enterprise and calls upon the Government to support social enterprises' pursuit of social objectives, including job creation, which is a valued end in itself;

— calls upon the Government to implement the Labour Court recommendations and furthermore, to allow community and voluntary sector workers to negotiate their pay and conditions on a collective basis by introducing a mechanism involving Departments, employers and workers which establishes the right to collective bargaining; and

— calls upon the Government to establish an All-Ireland Consultative Civic Forum promised by the Good Friday Agreement, which would enable communities to engage with others across civic society and across the country and share information, learning and best practice on an all-Ireland basis.

With the agreement of the House I will share time with four of my colleagues. While I am happy to introduce this Private Members' motion on behalf of Sinn Féin, I am equally dismayed that we have to do so. Despite the important and extremely valuable work of the community and voluntary sector over the years, which has been independently evaluated, it has been disproportionately targeted by Government cuts since before the recession even began. In 2009 public expenditure increased by 6%, yet the then Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, which was responsible for funding essential community infrastructure, had its budget cut by 8%. Then, in 2010 the Department's budget was cut by a further 10%, leading to overall cuts of between 18% and 20% for organisations in the community and voluntary sector.

With the stroke of a pen, the then Fianna Fáil-led Government ensured not only unemployment for people in the sector, but a marked deterioration in the lives of thousands of others as the community and voluntary sector was no longer able to sustain the same levels of activities and services it had been providing. I remind the Government the community sector provides these services because the State continues to fail to do so itself. Fianna Fáil could not expect anyone to believe it supported the community sector when it was inflicting this level of cuts, and Fine Gael and the Labour Party cannot seriously expect us to believe they support the community sector when clearly they have no intention of reinstating the level of funding that is needed. Front-line service providers working in the area of drug use and addiction were especially hit by cutbacks, leaving the sector with 15% less of a service. Supports in general for the community and voluntary sector have been cut by up to one third. This is a scandal.

I commend those who work in the community and voluntary sector, both in paid and voluntary capacities. These are the people who have to face the reality of, and make up the shortfall for, the Government's wing and a prayer attitude to policymaking in the State. People are overworked in terrible conditions, providing services for people who are very often living in poor conditions, working for low pay or no pay, and trying to make slashed budgets stretch as far as humanly possible.

Once again, those who received little or nothing during the Celtic tiger years are being forced to bear the burden of governmental financial mismanagement. The State neglected the poor, the homeless and the disabled over these years when there was money. In May, it was stated at IMPACT's health and welfare divisional conference in Tralee that 5,000 jobs had been lost in the sector, and the budgets of organisations had been cut by as much as 20%.

Regardless of what the Government may say, funding is often used as a gag mechanism against those in the community and voluntary sector. These groups are forced to walk a tightrope of providing services and looking for funding to do so because the State is either unwilling to do it or because whatever structure it has put in place is too inept to do it, while at the same time highlighting the deficiencies in State provision. However, as always, they can highlight only so much. A step too far and they will very quickly find themselves with a budget significantly cut from what it had been the previous year, and all for having the nerve to stand up and be counted and state what they see is wrong.

During its general election campaign, the Labour Party made all sorts of promises regarding the community and voluntary sector. I recall one statement from Deputy Joe Costello which conveniently, in the October before the election, called on the Government and the then Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs "to ensure that the cuts to the community and voluntary sector are stopped and that, at least, the existing services are maintained". Unfortunately this support did not travel with it into government.

The Community Workers' Co-operative, CWC, was one of the original anti-poverty networks identified by the State as having strategic importance during the 1990s, and it received core funding from the State until very recently. Its core work was to promote and support community development approaches to tackling poverty, social exclusion and inequalities using community development as a far more sustainable approach to poverty reduction and social inclusion than an income-based approach which is vulnerable to fluctuations in social welfare and other direct payments.

The scheme to support national organisations in the community and voluntary sector was subsequently reviewed by the then Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs. On 8 June the Community Workers' Co-operative received word that it would not be funded under the scheme in the future. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, then stated the application from the CWC did not meet the qualifying mark for funding on this occasion. The Labour Party and Fine Gael cannot have it both ways. The CWC criticised the local and community development programme and then lost 100% of its funding. They cannot pretend to support the community and voluntary sector and then cut funding because they do not like what the sector has to say. The CWC office in Galway has now closed and people have lost a very important voice for disadvantaged communities throughout the west.

Funding for other organisations is also under serious threat, with groups dealing with violence against women and general domestic violence being forced to fight for the same money. The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, INOU, recently cancelled the posting of its newsletters owing to funding limitations. As unemployment reaches almost 500,000, staff are being lost across the board and the most vulnerable in the State are being thrown to the wolves.

We believe there must be a securely resourced community and voluntary sector that responds to and advocates for the needs and wishes of communities, be they geographically based or communities of interest. It is about much more than service provision. It can channel meaningful input into decisions and help to ensure ongoing accountability in implementation.

Front-line services alone cannot tackle marginalisation. Communities must also be given the resources and supports to address its underlying causes. There is a need for all those involved in responding to the problems to work together. This includes the most affected families, communities and young people.

Cuts to the community sector are part of a larger deflationary austerity plan. They do irreparable damage to our vital community infrastructure which has taken years to build up. Unfortunately, the consensus of cuts embarked on by Fianna Fáil is now being continued by Fine Gael and the Labour Party, with communities suffering from the cumulative effect of cuts to public spending, public services and community-based services. The programme for Government states: "During a time of recession and deep unemployment the Government acknowledges the vital role of the community and voluntary sector working in partnership with local communities, State agencies and local authorities." Cutting funding left, right and centre is acknowledging nothing but the Government's austerity agenda. For these reasons I ask Members to hold to the promises they made before the general election and support the community and voluntary sector by supporting this motion.

See this speech in context