Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

When the Minister of State hears the issues I wish to raise he will understand why I say that.

I wish to first make a disclosure on this issue as it is about the scheme to support national organisations in the community and voluntary sector. I was chief executive of the Children's Rights Alliance, which is one of the recipients, and I am the chair of Children in Hospital Ireland. Neither of those organisations has brought this issue to my attention, although I know how critical it is. I raised this issue about this scheme on 28 May 2013 as an Adjournment matter, and on 16 December 2013, 18 February 2014 and I raise it again today. Therefore, it is not something of which the Minister or the Department is not aware.

This scheme to support those national organisations is a critical lifeline for them. In the case of the majority of these organisations, this funding they receive from the State is their sole funding - it is their core funding. When I first raised this issue on 28 May 2013, I raised the question of some of the organisations who are in receipt of this funding and I mentioned the FAI. I do not believe the criteria for the awarding of this grant was for those types of organisations and that we would pay one eighth of John Delaney's salary.

I raised this issue in February because of the delay in making payments under the scheme. Many of the organisations have been in this scheme since the 1990s. The funding they get from the State is quite a dependable stream and the level of it goes up and down depending on the current economic climate, but they had dramatic cuts in their funding at the end of last year. Payments normally come into them in January and I raised this issue on 18 February because the organisations had not received the money and they had not got any confirmation about future funding. At that stage we received confirmation that a new scheme was being published and that it would come into place with effect form 1 July and therefore current funding would run to the 30 June.

Can one imagine if one was in one of these organisations and on the Friday of the May bank holiday weekend one got a letter from the Department referring to the competition - as it is a new scheme - for the Scheme to Support National Organisations in the Community and Voluntary Sector 2014-2016. The letter states the Minister had hoped to be in a position to approve the successful applications organisations by the end of May. It also states that unfortunately due to competing priorities, the Minister will not be in position to announce the results of the competition for this scheme until early June.

That is fair enough and when this letter was sent to me I said "Let us give the Minister a few weeks". That letter goes on to state that in light of this, if the organisation is using funding under the current scheme that finishes at the end of June for direct salary costs - which many organisations are - of specific employees, in the absence of an alternative source of funding within the organisation's own resource, the organisation may have to consider putting those staff on protective notice.

We are here today on 26 June and the organisations do not know if they will get the funding. They do not know what is happening. There are staff losing their jobs today because the Minister has competing priorities. I have raised this issue four times in the Seanad in the past year. I have progressed it. I have played fair but there are organisations that are basically being told that the Department has not done its job. These organisations are the heart-blood of our community sector throughout Ireland. Each one of them would deserve to be the subject of an Adjournment debate in the Seanad. That is why I am disappointed the Minister is not here and the Minister of State has been put in an impossible position of trying to reply to this matter.

There are staff leaving their jobs today. I waited and waited for the Department to give an answer. I tried internally in the Department to get an answer. The State is telling these organisations to put staff on protective notice. Organisations that have raised this matter with me asked me if I could be very careful about mentioning their name - that they are in fear; it is the chilling effect. I do not believe that is the Government's intention. I do not understand why this is happening. That is why last May I raised in the Seanad the importance of us preparing well in advance for when the scheme would come to an end in December in order that we could prepare for this. I said that there are organisations in receipt of this funding that should not be in receipt of it. Let us be upfront about that. I offered to work with the Minister as I know the sector but nothing has happened and now this weekend will go by and organisations will make cuts. They will be told that they should be professional and should be preparing, but I think it is unacceptable. That is why I wanted to raise this matter in the Seanad and I thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing me to raise it today.

It is totally and utterly unacceptable that these cuts have been made and that a letter from a Department commits to a Minister making a decision by the beginning of June, which is already very late in the process, and it actually advises for staff to be put on protective notice and yet the organisations have still not got an answer by the end of June.