5,000 jobs in voluntary sector at risk, claims report

SERVICES for the country’s most vulnerable people are being strangled by Government cutbacks which will result in the loss of 5,000 jobs in the community and voluntary sectors, according to a new report.

The haemorrhaging of jobs in voluntary and community work has now left both sectors facing a crisis, it was warned yesterday. Services for social housing, the homeless, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, the unemployed and the disadvantaged were all at risk, the report for Ireland’s largest public service union said.

The IMPACT-commissioned report, the first of its kind, looked at department cutbacks in the last budget. It concluded that almost 5,000, or 10%, of jobs in the voluntary and community workforce will be lost by the end of this year.