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.

Union general secretary Shay Cody said cuts in the sectors were disproportionate to other areas where funds were reduced.

“We need these funds now more than ever – these are the easiest areas [sectors] to decapitate.”

The report noted there are 6,100 voluntary and community organisations in Ireland, employing over 53,000 people. This brought an estimated value to the economy of €6.5 billion, while state funding was in the order of €1.8bn.

Report author Brian Harvey was critical of An Bord Snip, which had pointed to savings to be made in the voluntary and community sectors. The IMPACT research identified the harshest department cutbacks affecting the sectors.

Contracts were not being renewed, professionals were being offered three-day weeks while others were being made part time, the report launch heard.

It said cutbacks included budgets of -24% in the childcare programme, -5% in lottery grants to voluntary groups and -9% for youth organisations under the Department of Health.

Budget cuts were also noted of -10% in the community and voluntary services, -10% in local development, -11% in tackling drug use and -53% in the CLAR (rural disadvantage) scheme under the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

The report went through cuts in programmes under 13 departments, including elsewhere in the Department of Justice as well as the Department of Taoiseach.

Reacting to the detailed breakdown of funding cuts, Roisin Ryder with Fatima Groups United pointed to a series of urban regeneration programmes which had been abandoned.

Ms Ryder expressed concern about works that had been cancelled in Dublin housing areas like St Michael’s Estate, O’Devaney Gardens, Croke Villas as well as the stalling of the Moyross regeneration scheme in Limerick.

Speaking at the report launch, IMPACT boards and agency secretary Una O’Connor also added: “Inflicting cuts on the community and voluntary sector is nothing less than a betrayal of everything that we have achieved.”