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

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht bheith anseo chun an díospóireacht seo a thógaint. Earlier this year, on 17 February, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, responded to a Topical Issue matter I raised drawing attention to concerns I had over the rolling out of the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP. I referred to the substantial cut in funding for the programme. There was a cut of €2 million throughout the country, with a cut of €742,000 in Dublin alone. I stated my belief that the new regime and the cuts would result in a loss of services and jobs. I asked the Minister at the time to guarantee there would be no job losses or a loss of service in the most disadvantaged communities in the State. A commitment to reinstate the money was not forthcoming. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, has good news in this regard. In February, the Minister stated, "As the Minister with responsibility for this area, I will not prejudge a tendering process". In some ways, I accept that. He also stated, "I am confident that the Government will address any issue that arises in the area of service provision to ensure people will receive the services they need". He added that once the tendering process was completed, he would "review the outcome and ensure front-line services delivered through the new programme are protected in so far as possible". I am sure the Minister of State, in her response, will reiterate that.

I do not know how much the Minister of State knows about the D12 Disability Mainstream Access Project, DMAP which operates in the Dublin 12 area, an old area of the city characterised by severe disadvantage. She has probably visited it on many occasions. DMAP is a community development organisation seeking to increase awareness and understanding of the needs and experience of people with disabilities. It seeks to help to address the issues of physical and social barriers that preclude access to community facilities for people with a disability and increase the level of social participation of people with a disability. The Dublin 12 area is an area of severe disadvantage for those with or without a disability. In fact, one in five people identifies as living with a disability in the area. This proportion is higher than in other parts of the country.

In the past year alone, 90 people took part in DMAP activities in the area. A further 250 schoolchildren are engaged in a disability awareness initiative facilitated by DMAP members. DMAP has worked with service providers, such as the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, WALK, Enable Ireland, Cheeverstown House, Dublin City Council and the local gardaí. The organisation is regarded by many of the statutory agencies in the area and beyond as one of the models of best practice in supporting people with a disability in the community.

DMAP received funding to the tune of €30,000. This is not huge. This money was to run the services, and particularly to help engage a part-time co-ordinator, who helped those with disabilities run the activities for themselves. However, due to the SICAP proposals and the resulting cut affecting DMAP, the project was forced to lay off the part-time co-ordinator earlier this month. I hope the Minister of State will be able to announce a reversal of this.

Does the Minister of State accept that the whole SICAP process is now preventing Canal Communities Partnership, the partnership group that covers the Dublin 12 area or the part of the Dublin 12 area in question and which won the tender, from allocating funding to the project? It now falls to the Minister of State to step in and allocate money directly or allocate to the Canal Communities Partnership additional funding that it can transfer to DMAP. The initial promise that was made was that these issues would be addressed once the tendering process was completed and once things settle down.

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