Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)

It is 14 years since I made a contribution in the House on a Social Welfare Bill. It is a horrendous experience to come here after 14 years and ask oneself how the has country descended to the extent that every Department is slashing its budget. The answer is simple, but tragic: in the past 14 years Fianna Fáil has dragged this country down to the extent that we are being bailed out by the IMF and the EU. It is horrendous to come in here after 14 years and see how the country has deteriorated through the imposition by the IMF of a bailout plan for the country. It is horrendous that the Minister, Deputy Burton, must create cutbacks of €475 million in her budget. It is unthinkable. However, this is what must be done. I thank the Minister for her efforts at Cabinet level to achieve a cut lower than what was to be a far more substantial cut. I understand she whittled it down from €700 million to €475 million. However, the problem is that it is difficult to gain applause for hurting less.

I have a particular interest in the section dealing with community employment, as I am both a parliamentarian and a community activist. I am a voluntary community activist and a director of three voluntary organisations, one of which is Treasure Tots nursery in Ballyfermot, a not for profit organisation. I am on the Dolphin House community development association, another not for profit body, and I am a member of the board of directors of Crumlin Child Care Consortium. The best way to explain the difficulties for me as a director is to give an example. If the €1,000 cut in the allowance for materials and training goes ahead, this affects not just the individual community employment worker but also us as company directors. The money does not come into the hands of the community employment participant but comes to the board or the legal entities that must manage the programmes. For example, in Treasure Tots nursery we have 18 community employment workers on the scheme and we would not be able to deliver the excellent child care service we deliver without their participation. Treasure Tots nursery provides a very high quality level of training. All our CE workers go right through to FETAC level 5 training. They progress beyond CE and have been recruited locally by day nurseries and not for profit nurseries in Cherry Orchard. The Crumlin Child Care Consortium has also recruited those who have been upskilled through community employment. The difficulty we face is that if it is arbitrarily decided that the allowances for the 18 CE workers in Treasure Tots nursery will be lost, our shortfall will be €18,000 and it would be difficult to expect voluntary community activists like me and others to continue to provide that service.

In her speech, the Minister mentioned an additional €20 million from the Department of Education and Science for training. Now that her Department has linked up with SOLAS, the FÁS training people, there is a golden opportunity for the Government and various Departments, particularly those of the Ministers, Deputies Howlin and Burton, to take on board the recommendations of the ICTU submission regarding the challenges and solutions for the community sector. This submission was made in conjunction with the community sector employment forum. I am not just a community activist; I am, in a sense, an employer. Anybody else here who happens to be a company director of a voluntary company is also an employer as well as an activist.

This Bill gives us a great opportunity to engage as a Government with both employers and ICTU to create a tripartite discussion about how we will channel the various funds from FÁS, the HSE, the local authorities, the Department of Justice and Equality, the VECs, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs - the list goes on. The demand being made of us is to give workers a voice in the decision-making process. I appeal to the Government and to the Minister for Social Protection, who is now in an ideal position given the linking of the Department with SOLAS, to get the various bodies talking together.

I am reasonably confident that we will be able to rearrange the deckchairs around the issue of training and materials, given the announcement by the Minister of an additional €20 million being made available. However, it is important to engage in serious discussion with all the partners. It should not just be a case of people running a drugs task force programme or a community development programme being told all of a sudden by FÁS to cut the programme by 5% or 10% or by the CDVEC that youth services will be cut. We need those who are providing phenomenal services within the community to have a voice when decisions are being taken. The only successful way to achieve that is by bringing on board the ICTU document with a view to creating proper recognition for the voluntary and community sector in negotiations about their future, their role, continuing funding, salary scales for workers and continuity of employment.

I thank two key people: Jean Somerset from the community sector employers forum and Darragh O'Connor from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions community committee. These two excellent people are ready, available and willing to represent the community sector in talks with Government.

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