Community workers rally against cuts and privatisation

COMMUNITY WORKERS held a protest outside the Department of Environment and Local Government at the Custom House in Dublin on Wednesday in opposition to the Department's drive to privatise community social inclusion programmes.

SIPTU Community Sector Organiser, Darragh O’Connor, said: “While austerity delivered disproportionate cuts to the community sector for the past eight years, privatisation is the emerging threat to services.”

He added:

“The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) is the guinea pig for the Department’s free market experiment of pitting community organisations against each other to win tenders. This is not just an attack against the social inclusion programme; the threat of privatisation will be an issue for everyone in the community and voluntary sector unless we take a stand now.”

Speaking at the protest, Sinn Féin's Brian Stanley TD told An Phoblacht:

"Community development workers have a number of concerns including the fact that the Department of Environment is refusing to meaningfully engage with workers and their union, despite the Labour Court recommending that they do so."