As the recession bites, more people are turning for help to community advice centres. But now the centres themselves are facing their own battle for survival, writes RONAN McGREEVY
LIKE MANY who did well in the boom, Martin Murphy* did not see the economic collapse coming. He was working as a carpenter, earning €1,000 a week during the good years, paying all the bills while providing for his family.
He and his wife bought a house costing almost €300,000 in Co Monaghan for themselves and their four children five years ago.
Last December he was made redundant and has not worked since. It has been a savage blow, financially and emotionally, for a man who had never been out of work before.
There is no prospect of work at the moment, no chance of emigrating even for a short time with such family commitments, and even the nixers have dried up.
He has not made a mortgage payment for months and the arrears are now north of €10,000.
A friend suggested that he approach the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) or the local Family Resource Centre (FRC) in Monaghan.
Murphy says there is no way he would have considered going to such a centre in the past as it would have been an admission of failure, but needs must, and as the bills mounted, his need for help increased.
“You hear people talking on the TV about these things, but it felt like they were talking about me,” he says. “It took me months to go to the centre after a lot of persuasion.”
Having talked through his financial problems, he has since approached Mabs and his bank about his mortgage difficulties. Ultimately, his problems will be resolved only if and when he gets a job.
“I would not have gone to the bank had I not gone to the centre. We’re not out of the woods yet, but I’m not as scared as I was five months ago.”
Anne Brady* is another who found solace in her local FRC. She and her husband had a household income of almost €100,000 a year. Now she has lost her job in social care and her husband’s wage has been cut drastically.
“Basically, we are still screwed financially, but I was able to speak to the counselling service at the centre about it. I have never been unemployed in my life before. They are helping to build up my self-esteem so I can get out of this.”
Family Resource Centre National Forum chairman Packie Kelly says the centres are being inundated with middle-income couples who never would have even considered using them in the past.
Some are coming because they don’t know how to cope with a situation which is new and frightening to them.
“They are coming looking to volunteer their time. Some are coming because they are afraid and they don’t have the skill to negotiate the social welfare system. In some cases, they don’t want to have the conversation with the bank.”
Ironically, the centres have never been busier at a time when An Bord Snip Nua has effectively advocated their abolition.
Having been set up in 1994 on a pilot basis to provide support for families from disadvantaged backgrounds, there are now more than 100 FRCs countrywide. They are funded through the Family Support Agency (FSA), which receives a budget every year of €35.5 million. Just over half, or €18 million, goes towards funding the FRCs.
The Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes, chaired by Colm McCarthy, did not mention cutting funding to the FRCs directly. Instead, the report advocated the discontinuation of the Family Support Agency.
It questioned the effectiveness of the services that it provides. It said there was an overlap in some cases with other State-funded community and voluntary programmes, though it does not specify which ones.
As the centres rely almost exclusively on the FSA for funding, closing it down would sound the death knell for them unless alternative sources of funding could be found, extremely unlikely in the present economic climate.
Like many State-funded organisations, the FRCs now fear closure and have begun a lobbying campaign of TDs and Senators to stave that off.
Kelly told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs last week that the McCarthy report had created “fear, concern and apprehension”.
If the reaction of the committee is anything to go by, the support among cross-party backbench politicians is assured.
Fianna Fáil TD Cyprian Brady captured the tone of the meeting when he said: “Neither side of the House will argue about the value and benefits of family resource centres anywhere in the country”.
There was, however, some minor criticism of the opening hours of FRCs by Fianna Fáil Senator Martin Brady, which was refuted by Stephen Murphy, the manager of a centre in Kilkenny city.
He gave a detailed analysis of what present-day FRCs do. His FRC is open from 8am to 10.30pm-11pm on weekdays and on Saturday and Sundays.
It provides for 126 children in after-school care clubs, aged from five to 17, 86 children in a one-to-one catch-up programme, and 200 voluntary tutors. It also runs adult education and Fetac-level courses targeting illiteracy in the community.
Kelly says the lobbying campaign is a distraction when they have so much else to be getting on with. However, they did meet the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, in September, a meeting which he describes as “extremely positive”.
The FRCs have offered to expand their services at no extra cost to include a child contact facility for parents who are estranged from their children to stop the phenomenon of the so-called “McDonald’s dads”. They have also offered services for older people who suffer from isolation in rural areas.
“We take solace from the cross-party support from all the Oireachtas members and from the positive meeting we had with Mary Hanafin,” says Kelly.
“When asked a direct question about the future of the FRCs, we’re told that these decisions are made closer to the Budget. It is a very difficult environment to operate in.”
*Names have been changed
