Burton insists money will be found for ‘viable’ CE schemes

SOCIAL Protection Minister Joan Burton was forced into a second climbdown on her budget proposals after pressure from her party TDs and warnings that the future of hundreds of community employment schemes now lay in doubt.

Protesters gathered at Leinster House yesterday over budget measures which will cut training funds for scheme participants and remove top-up payments for those already on welfare.

Labour TDs were confronted by angry single mothers and community scheme workers but admitted they would be voting for the budget in the Dáil.

Ms Burton plans to reduce training and materials from €1,500 to €500 per participant. But single parents and those already on disability allowance will have their community scheme pay cut to almost nothing.

Mother-of-three Andrea Galvey from the lone parents campaign group told protesters she would be down €120 a week. “I’m already on the bread line and now I’m being asked to work 20 hours a week under a scheme and only get €20. Where’s the incentive to go back to work? They [the Government] are denying us and keeping us in a poverty trap forever.”

The 38-year-old was due to begin scheme work in a library in Waterford but says that, following the cuts, she would end up spending more on petrol than she would actually earn going to her new workplace.

Instead of the €197 paid to her for the work, Ms Galvey will now just get €20. This is on top of the €277 she receives to help care for her three sons.

Ms Burton played down concerns yesterday in the Dáil and said there would be a review of schemes first. She later wrote to party TDs confirming this and added that money would be found where grant removals threatened “viable” schemes.

Sinn Féin urged Labour TDs to vote against Ms Burton’s “Thatcherite cuts”.

Patrick Nulty, the Labour TD who lost the party whip this week, said he opposed the community scheme cuts, adding: “The 66% cut in CE Schemes across the country will be devastating for communities and prevent people from obtaining a vital bridge into the labour market.”

Labour TD Ciara Conway met protesters from SIPTU and other groups outside Leinster House’s gates. She said she wanted to vote against the budget but could not.

She said: “I don’t believe at this time that I’m in a position to have any influence when I’m outside of the party.”

Meanwhile, about 50 people descended on the office of Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald in Clondalkin in a separate protest against cuts to the one-parent family allowance.

Single mother Leah Speight said the cuts were “a huge step backwards for women” in the country.