A month before the elections, Bertie Ahern opened this charity centre. Now its workers face eviction

JUST over a month ago Taoiseach Bertie Ahern opened a centre for 44 voluntary groups.

Now they face eviction because a Government department is refusing to pay €150,000 a year to keep it open.

When Mr Ahern visited the Carmichael Centre for Voluntary Groups in Dublin on May 17 last, he said he was confident it would continue well into the future.

The centre, the first, largest and busiest shared facility for charities in Ireland, is home to vitally important organisations, including groups supporting people with severe neurological conditions and children's health projects.

The Department of Health has agreed to provide €150,000 in core funding every year, but the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs refuses to make a similar provision to keep the centre going.

A spokesperson for the latter department said it gave the centre €75,000 last December and it would be "unreasonable" for the centre to expect another grant at this time.

The centre's chief executive, Kate O'Sullivan, said that as well as having 44 resident organisations, a further 350 used its facilities and services.

Ms O'Sullivan said they had just completed refurbishing Carmichael House the larger of the two buildings it uses and spent a lot of time and energy in the last three years raising the €1.3 million needed for the work.

"We are technically insolvent at the moment and the actual money runs out on July 9. It's just horrific," she said.

Ms O'Sullivan said it was Government policy to support the organisations that are helping others to get up and running. She said the centre had been lobbying the Government for a long time for the €300,000 in core funding that they now needed.

"About two weeks ago our board looked at their accounts and said we cannot continue. We have a legal obligation to close this place, otherwise we will become insolvent," Ms O'Sullivan added.

Resident organisations have been informed that they will have to quit the centre on Friday, July 9, if the Government fails to come up with an ongoing solution to their financial problem. Redundancy notices have also been issued to staff at the centre.

The Northern Area Health Board owns one of the buildings the centre uses and Dublin City Council owns the other.

"It is the core cost of managing the organisation that is our problem," Ms O'Sullivan explained.

"We have an operating budget of about €825,000 and we are able through charges for our services, which are obviously subsidised, and fundraising events to raise all but €300,000 of that."

Heart Children Ireland, a support group for parents of children with a congenital heart disorder, is one of the centre's 44 resident groups at the centre.

Administrator Margaret Rogers said they would have to look for a commercial office if the centre closed because the need for the group was too great.

"That would increase our costs and reduce the vital services we can provide and we don't want that to happen," she said.