Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like the other Deputies, I cannot see the logic behind an announcement by the Government that austerity is over and there will be no more cuts, while the equivalent of a cut of €2 million is being made in this vital sector. Deputy McDonald outlined the effects of this in the north inner city and I know from a meeting I attended in Ballyfermot that a potential effect of the cut is the closure of one of the key projects in that area, the equine centre, while another project, the Ballyfermot partnership, will be severely hampered if not undermined. A similar effect will be seen in the Canal Communities Partnership and the Rathmines Partnership.

All of these partnerships work in areas which are deemed RAPID areas or have RAPID areas within them. These are areas of severe disadvantage which have higher than the national average unemployment. Poverty levels in these areas are sky-high and alternatives are not available to these projects to breach the funding gap now facing them. Therefore, the equine centre will lose a manager and other staff. While the Minister has set out the logic of tendering and the potential privatisation of community services, that is an ideological debate that we can have some other time.

One of the Minister's criteria for projects is that no more than 25% of the allocation should be spent on administration. However, this does not take account of the historical way in which these groups were funded. Different streams of funding were used. The criteria do not allow these projects the opportunity to phase in the changes, because if they submit a tender application by 19 December which includes anything more than 25% funding for administration, it will be ruled out straight away. They do not have an alternative source of funding so they will lose a manager. If a partnership loses a manager, that undermines the cohesion of that partnership and its ability to leverage other funding, as most partnership managers are involved in that. Will the Minister explain the logic behind this and whether there is any potential to move some of the targets and deadlines set so as to allow these groups to make alternative arrangements if possible?

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