Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 1 Jul 1999

Vol. 507 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Area Partnership Boards.

Mr. Deenihan

The future of community-led local development efforts across the country hangs in the balance due to the continuing Government indecision over funding after the end of this year. I seek a clear commitment from the Government for the continuation of the Local Development Programme from 2000 to 2006, with a focus on social exclusion and a financial bridging mechanism to enable partnership companies to function during the year 2000. Without such an unequivocal assurance from the Government the current situation is untenable, both from the point of view of programme continuity and the retention of experienced professional staff.

Nationally the Local Development Programme has achieved the following: a total of 13,100 long-term unemployed set up their own businesses with partnership assistance; 13,500 unemployed were placed in employment and a further 10,000, who availed of partnership supports, left the live register through making applications on their own behalf; more than 17,000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds participated in partnership funded preventative education projects; and partnerships initiated more than 1,400 community, environmental and infrastructural projects and assisted more than 13,000 adults on low incomes to participate in education and training programmes.

In County Kerry, the combined activities of Partnership Trá Lí Limited and South Kerry Development Partnership Limited include: support for the creation of more than 1,000 self-employment jobs, the majority of the people involved would otherwise be unemployed; support for more than 850 people re-entering the workforce through the local employment services; and access to education and training courses for more than 600 disadvantaged individuals.

In addition, both partnerships have been engaged in supporting an enormous range of initiatives to develop their localities from the point of view of enterprise, human resources and the environment. Together the two partnerships have brought more than £13 million of European and State funds into the county since 1995. The majority of this has been effectively targeted at disadvantaged sectors of the community and this fact has been recognised in numerous reports, including an independent mid-term review of the partnership groups by A & L Goodbody and the European Social Fund.

I add to the development of the two partnerships, the achievements of the local partnerships in my home town, Listowel, and in Castleisland. Both these partnership groups have been very effective, especially in helping the marginalised, the socially excluded, the unemployed and people who are disadvantaged generally. These people are worried that their employment will not be continued and that all their hard work and the progress they have made will have been futile.

As regards County Kerry, the loss of Objective One status, coupled with the apparent apathetic view of the Government towards those disadvantaged sectors of County Kerry which are dependent on the local partnership groups, presents a potentially bleak picture for future local development in the county. Perhaps the Minister can convince me otherwise.

I, and I am sure Deputy Broughan, want the Minister to make a clear statement of the Government's policy regarding the continuation of the partnership boards. The Minister has acknowledged their great work on several occasions. The Taoiseach has acknowledged publicly their contribution. Why then is there indecision about continuing their funding? What is the problem?

Mr. Broughan

One cannot deny that since 1991, a key element in the regeneration of many of the most deprived communities, such as those in Dublin, has been the existence of the 38 partnership companies and the wide range of activities which they have undertaken on behalf of these communities. Some of the current wealth of the Celtic tiger economy is down to the fact that the educational side of those companies helped to provide many of the young high-tech workers who staff the cutting edge of modern industry.

The partnership concept originated with the general secretary of the ICTU, Mr. Peter Cassells, in the mid-1980s, when I was heavily involved in community enterprise and unemployed groups on the northside. When he sold the idea to the Government in the early 1990s, the development of the first 12 companies certainly provided a headline for economic development of the areas of deprivation. I am proud to have played a role before I entered politics in advancing those developments in the Coolock and Kilbarrack areas in particular.

In my area the Northside Partnership, under chairperson Mr. Padraic White and director Ms Marian Vickers, has often been regarded as a model partnership and provided some of the trail blazing ideas which many other partnerships have pursued. The major achievements of the North side Partnership included the famous contact point development with intensive mentoring of the unemployed, the development of job clubs, small enterprise advice and small business support, for which there is a network in Coolock, Baldoyle, Darndale and Donnycarney on the northside, and an educational programme in which we developed third level access and helped students from some of the most deprived areas to qualify as high-tech engineers and for other important jobs for the economy. Recently, under Ms Noreen Byrne, we launched one of the first major child care programmes throughout the partnership companies. Northside Partnership also has its own factories which enable us to give unemployed people essential training for the world of work. The Minister will agree that most of all the Northside Partnership, Ballymun Partnership Ltd., Finglas/Cabra Partnership, and partnerships as far away as those in County Kerry, to which my colleague, Deputy Deenihan, referred, have raised the morale of all of those communities.

Against that background it seems inconceivable that, within six months of the funding running out, the Minister and his colleagues, particularly the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, have left us in limbo regarding the jobs of the key people who run these sources of mighty economic and educational regeneration for our areas. It seems inconceivable that the Government does not have a clear national development plan for 2000-06 and that it has not already clearly indicated the role and funding of the partnership companies on the basis of the plan. My colleague, Padraic White, recently criticised the Government's failure to do that within six months in The Irish Independent. Many of our talented workers must, as Deputy Deenihan stated, look to their own futures. They need to know what they must do over the next six months in order to keep a roof over their heads. We must clearly inform them of what their role will be and the manner in which the partnership companies will be funded after 1 January 2000.

The situation is compounded in the Dublin area as the Government reduced the area to the status of Objective One in transition. Therefore, we do not have access to core funding; only the fortunate western and midland counties have full Objective One status. Key urban areas in Ireland are now faced with the fact that the Exchequer and the Minister for Finance must come up with funding. I know the Acting Chairman has as much interest in what happens on the southside of Dublin as I have in the northside in this regard.

We are one day away from the end of this Dáil session and the Taoiseach, with whom ultimate responsibility lies in this regard, must specifically inform the Kerry and Northside partnerships and others of how he intends to put a funding and support framework in place for the partnership companies until 2006. That will give some kind of security to the workers who have done the nation proud in the past decade and who are essential to the continuance of bedrock development, particularly in areas of great deprivation. The Minister will be aware that levels of between 25 and 40 per cent unemployment still exist in some areas in spite of the Celtic tiger economy. I urge him to take action without delay.

Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation (Mr. Flood)

I propose to give a combined response to the matters raised by Deputies Broughan and Deenihan as they essentially deal with the same issue.

It is widely acknowledged that the ADM supported area based partnerships and community groups have been successful in developing a new and innovative area based approach to the needs of disadvantaged areas, urban and rural.

The European Council recently agreed a funding package of Community support for the 2000-6 period. While the outcome for Ireland was good, given the extreme difficulty of the negotiations, the level of EU Structural Funds available over that period will be approximately half that available to Ireland under the current Community support framework.

Work has already commenced on agreeing priorities for EU co-funding under Ireland's next national development plan and on clarifying the Commission's new procedures for the next round of Structural Funds. A separate national consultation process, inclusive of the social partners, must also be undergone. Until such time as this overall process is completed, it is difficult to give any indication of likely levels of EU financial commitments and programme support.

It is natural that there will be a degree of uncertainty pending the completion of the national development plan and the position to be taken by the European Commission as to its funding commitments to certain elements of this plan. The Government is, however, fully committed to the fundamentally important task of tackling social exclusion in deprived areas and of ensuring that the overall objectives of current programmes remain a priority.

The report of the task force on the integration of the local government and local development systems clearly also envisages the continuation of area based local development structures within a more sustainable framework. The future will require the consideration and implementation of a number of recommendations in the task force report and those are by now well known to the groups concerned. Issues arising from previous performance, changes in deprivation rankings and the need to ensure that the needs of the real blackspot areas are being addressed also require consideration when planning for the future.

I am fully aware of the concerns of the area partnerships and ADM supported community groups. In May, I held formal meetings with two groups from PLANET – one representing rural partnerships and one representing the chairs of partnerships – to discuss their concerns. My Department has also met with representatives of the ADM community groups to discuss post-1999 issues. I recognise the tremendous work being done by the staff of area partnerships and ADM community groups throughout the country. Many of them show a great commitment to helping those who are often forgotten by the more affluent majority.

I understand the uncertainty that exists but, as I have said on several occasions recently, until such time as the overall package of funding for Ireland is agreed, we are all constrained by that uncertainty. The Government has made it plain that it appreciates the positive contribution of partnership at national level. It also recognises the contribution of partnership at local level. My Department sees the advantages of area based approaches to tackling disadvantage as, indeed, does the EU Commission.

The funding for local development initiatives will depend on the financial envelopes available post-1999 under the new national development plan. I hope we can achieve clarity on these as soon as possible. In my discussions with the various groups I signalled that the situation should become clearer in July when the Government has had an opportunity to reflect on the various proposals and options.

Although I cannot pre-empt the national development plan, I can say that the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation has made a comprehensive case for local development funding in the context of the drafting of the plan. The submission recognises the fundamental role of area-based strategies in tackling disadvantage. I can say, however, that, on the basis of discussions to date, I am more than confident that the tackling of social disadvantage at both national and local level will be a major priority under the plan and will have substantial resources devoted to it.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.30 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 2 July 1999.