Plea not to cut voluntary groups’ funding

A CHURCH leader has warned the government not to indulge in cutbacks against voluntary organisations without which vital services to society would fall apart.

Bishop Paul Colton has advised the Government not to take for granted the essential work being carried out by voluntary groups against an unfolding landscape of economic cutbacks.

“Let’s call a spade a spade,” he said yesterday, “the reality is were it not for volunteers, many aspects of health work; caring for the needy and elderly; the work of our education sector; sporting and recreational bodies together with special causes, would founder without volunteers” The Church of Ireland bishop said: “They are too easily forgotten sometimes, but their work cannot afford to be undermined by the lack of resources.

“Don’t take volunteers or voluntary groups for granted and don’t push them to the edge of viability by lack of resources,” the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross said.

The simple reality, he said, is the Government needs to maintain and enhance its partnership with voluntary groups such as Churches, charities and special interest bodies in order to get some of the core activities of our society carried out.

“If the work of those voluntary groups is among the first to suffer,” said Bishop Colton, “it would be hugely disillusioning for the people involved. It would undermine their efforts and be to the detriment of local communities everywhere, as increasing numbers of volunteers get fed up and organisations find it ever more difficult to recruit.” The bishop noted voluntary community spirit was one of the greatest casualties of the boom era of the so-called Celtic Tiger.

“When people are drawn into an economic boom, they have less time for the voluntary sector due to the consequent stresses and pressures,” he said. He said a voluntary-managed nursing home care project in his own diocese, St Luke’s Home for Elderly, was experiencing difficulties in recruiting volunteers for core management work such as fundraising.

Bishop Colton said that although there are concerns about public spending cutbacks, there was also a need for people to show maturity and realise the Government cannot do everything which needed to be done.

“We, as a people, share a responsibility in community to work together for the common good.

“Mutual help and communal solidarity are key elements in our national well-being.”

Asserting that Ireland required a rediscovery of voluntary spirit, the bishop warned much essential work would go undone without a new influx of volunteers.