Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

This is a very important motion and it is a pity it needs to be discussed in the House. When the people voted out a Government which was intent on ripping the heart and soul out of communities I thought we would have seen a different tack being taken by this Government but, to date, this has not been the case. The new Government has an opportunity tomorrow evening to declare its interest in and protection of the community and voluntary sector and its investment in the services and supports which those sectors need desperately.

Those services are vital and most of them are delivering a service which otherwise would have to be delivered by the State and this will be the case if those services are withdrawn as a result of the imposition of cuts in funding. The community and voluntary sector delivers services which should be the responsibility of the State to provide but the sector has been doing this work for many generations. The sector is a very effective and efficient provider of these services. In my view, the community and voluntary sector has been over-evaluated and it is regrettable the same evaluations of its effectiveness and expenditure were not applied to many of the Departments or to the Central Bank in particular. In many cases the sector has delivered a service at a much lower cost than the State could ever do. I urge the Minister to ensure that not only is the voluntary and community sector protected but that a reversal is made in the budget of the cuts imposed in recent years.

These are the vital services which include providing proper meals and day care for the elderly. These services are aimed at those who are drug-dependent or are recovering from some type of drug dependency. They also include youth services. If those services are not fully resourced we will be in a much worse state. This will be the outcome of any cuts inflicted on some of these groups.

I have been contacted by a number of groups both in my area and in others. They are at the end of their tether and they cannot sustain another cut. Some have managed to absorb the cuts. Addiction Response Crumlin is an umbrella organisation in my area for nine different groups. It has had a 22% cut in its budgets over the past three years. The group intervenes and supports communities and families who are in dire need and are the most vulnerable. Its work is saving the State an absolute fortune. If the services of the group is curtailed, more people will be in prison and more people will be in accident and emergency departments and there will be a higher level of crime in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas. This demonstrates how vital is this one service.

I appeal to the Minister to ensure there will be no cuts. I hope no Minister will stand up to say there has not been any cut since the new Government came into office. There seems to be an embargo on filling community employment places. This is the equivalent of a cut. The HSE recently announced there has been a further cut of 5% in the budget for the last quarter for many of the mainstream drugs projects. This comes at a time when most of the money has been planned for and spent by the projects. The St. John Bosco youth centre in my area risks seeing its funded staff numbers being cut by half by the middle of 2012 if any cuts are imposed. This is its precarious financial situation. The centre has ten directly employed youth workers and service deliverers and this number would be reduced to five. It would be impossible to deliver the youth services which the centre has developed over the years.

I will list the organisations which have rolled out the services they were allowed develop. If these services are cut, the communities will suffer. These communities do not have jobs nor any wealth to allow for fund-raising. They are the most vulnerable and most disadvantaged communities in the country.

I refer to the Inchicore community drug team which has lost one staff member who had been working 21 hours a week as well as three seasonal workers who provide holistic therapies for three afternoons. That service is no longer available. Even in the absence of further cuts, they may still lose another half-time post by the beginning of January. This will impact on people in recovery from drug dependency. The FÁS community employment scheme in Dolphin House and Dolphin Park has lost five CE places as a result of an embargo on filling places. Providing employment and training opportunities is central to the successful social regeneration so these cuts in CE places undermine that vital objective.

I urge the Minister, if nothing else, to ensure the State lives up to its responsibilities to workers such as those on community employment and jobs initiative schemes. It must deal with the anomaly whereby one group argues it is not responsible for the workers and the State argues the responsibility lies with the partnerships, community development programmes or FÁS. This anomaly must be ended and it must be ensured that collective bargaining is allowed for that group of workers in our society who do not currently enjoy it. I urge the Minister to ensure there will be no cutbacks and to ensure a reversal of cutbacks implemented by the previous Government, as was promised by many of the Labour Party Deputies in the general election. They should live up to their promises or they will regret the day they cut any of these services.

See this speech in context