Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

I am glad to have the opportunity to support the Sinn Féin motion. It is a signal to the Government that any more cuts to CE schemes will have a huge impact on the communities where the schemes operate and on the schemes themselves. There should be an immediate reversal of the 66% cuts to the 2011 levels of the training and materials budget.

This is one of the cruellest and meanest of the many cruel and mean cuts we have seen. Two weeks before Christmas these schemes were told their materials and training grants would be cut by 66%. At the same time projects like Ballyfermot Star and the F2 centres in St. Michael's, Dolphin and Fatima were told they would have huge funding cuts and that they would lose key workers, leaving them without the support they needed. I hope the Minister, Deputy Burton, had a reasonable Christmas, because she left many of these people in a state of anxiety over the Christmas period anticipating what was coming down the track.

It is not good enough to talk about a review. The way the cuts have been implemented is disgraceful. The Minister should have done the review in the first instance, sitting down with the interested groups and talking about how the cuts would impact on their areas. However, these cuts should not happen at all.

Far from being cut, schemes in these areas should be protected and their funding ring-fenced, particularly when one considers the impact of drugs on these communities.

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