Madam, – As unemployment figures continue to rise (“750 jobs to go”, Front page, February 10th), I fail to see the logic of closing down 187 community-based projects throughout the country.
This is the effect of the Government’s decision to close down the National Community Development Programme.
Not only will this result in a serious loss of services and supports to local communities, it will deprive the 187 local volunteer groups of the opportunity to contribute directly and meaningfully towards making their communities better places to live.
The Government’s line that the new Local Development Programme will accommodate all the work and voluntary effort of the former programme is utter rubbish. The truth is that this is an attempt by the State to capture all the good work of the community and to once again do down the role of civil society in Ireland.
Such analysis is consistent with the closure of the Combat Poverty Agency, the effective muzzling of the Equality Authority, the premature termination of all contracts to regional support agencies, as announced in the recent budget by Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, to name but a few.
As the Government presses on with its relentless attack on the weakest and most vulnerable in our society, under the guise of fiscal rectitude, it becomes increasingly obvious that this Government is motivated by an agenda of self-interest and opportunism.
I have no doubt future governments will come to bemoan the folly of dispensing with the rich contribution, often referred to as social capital, that these civil society organisations provide.
– Yours, etc,