Changes to Government’s social inclusion programme a “blow to local democracy”

The Government has inflicted another “blow to local democracy” through its reconfiguration of programme funding for social inclusion, a Connemara community development group claims.

Training and support for lone parents, carers, asylum seekers, people with disabilities, older residents and other marginalised groups will be seriously affected by the administrative change, Forum Connemara Ltd has said.

Up to 80 of its supporters representing a population of 34,000 in Gaeltacht and non-Gaeltacht areas handed in a petition to yesterday morning's meeting of Galway County Council as part of a new "Save Forum Connemara" campaign.

Board member Leo Hallissey said that the Government was giving the impression that its policies were about “people first, and bottom up”, when it was “doing the opposite”.

Urban-based partnerships, islands and other rural community groups are all affected by the Department of the Environment’s decision to replace State-funded local community and development programmes with a new system called the Social Inclusion and Community and Activation Programme (Sicap).

Some €28 million for 50 Sicap "partnerships" was recently announced by the department, amid criticism from community development partnerships and trade union Siptu.

Under the old system, which Forum Connemara Ltd had administered for 25 years, funding was allocated to local development companies based in communities which then dispersed money to smaller groups.

Funding

Under the new Sicap system, 51 “lots” of funding are to be administered by local community development committees (LCDC) based within local authorities. However, Galway has been allocated only one “lot” for the entire county, and the tendering procedure, which has been described as a move to “privatise” the sector, pitted Forum Connemara Ltd in the west against Galway Rural Development Ltd (GRD) in the east of the county.

“We have always worked well with GRD, but it secured the contract, without having any links to this large area of Connemara,” Mr Hallissey said. “We would question why Cork was given seven ‘lots’ and Mayo was given three, when Galway just had one.”

Mr Hallissey said it was a “blow to local democracy” at a time when there was also a question mark over Leader programmes in the area. The department also reconfigured Leader, which is now administered through local authorities.

Fine Gael councillor Jimmy McClearn, who chairs Galway's LCDC, said that it had followed Department of Environment guidelines in choosing one funding "lot" for social inclusion for Galway county.

“It is regrettable if the department said different things to different counties, but our hands are tied,”he said.

Minister of State for Rural Affairs Ann Phelan, who was given overall responsibility for Leader and SICAP late last year, has said she is "determined these programmes will drive the renewal of rural Ireland through business development and job creation ".