3,000 COMMUNITY GROUPS APPLY FOR TÚS WORKERS

BY ALLEN MEAGHER

Across the country, community groups are learning that they don’t have to be a registered charity or even have a bank account to apply for a Tús worker.

Over 3,000 groups had applied for a worker by July with 1,200 of those considered worthwhile placements.

By December of this year, there should be 5,000 people doing 19.5 hours a week in local communities through the Tús scheme and numbers may double or triple in the future.

Community groups that apply need to have a good, meaningful work placement available.

The groups don’t employ the worker and are not responsible for their supervision – that’s for their Local Development Company and across the country around 200 Tús scheme supervisors are currently being recruited to manage that work through the 52 LDCs in the Local and Community Development Programme.

Community groups in urban as well as rural areas can apply. After 12 months, when the worker’s placement finishes, the community group can apply for a new worker.

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Rural Social Scheme workers in Co. Cork. Tús is similar.

TÚS FIGURES EAST TO WEST

The following are the figures in relation to the Tús Scheme up to July from six areas, urban and rural:

Clare: 300 letters sent out; 250 replied ‘Yes’ before the closing date; 10 no replies.

Offaly: 120 letters sent out; 82 replied ‘Yes’ before the closing date; 20 sought exclusions; 18 initially did not reply but all subsequently agreed to participate.

Laois: 30 letters sent out; 23 replied ‘Yes’ before the closing date; 2 sought exclusions; 5 no replies.

Finglas postal area: 77 letters sent out; two-thirds replied ‘Yes’ before the closing date; 12 sought exclusions.

Dublin Northside: 30 letters sent out; 21 replied ‘Yes’ before the closing date.

Meath: 45 letters sent out; 36 replied ‘Yes’ before the closing date.

Pobal to continue, despite pre-election talk of closure

Pobal looks likely to continue to be supported by the Government, despite pre-election talk of closure, Minister Phil Hogan has indicated to 'Changing Ireland'.

The Government agency was listed as one of the 145 so-called "quangos" that the State could do without, with Fine Gael proposing the takeover of its functions by local authorities. The body handled €377m of national and EU funding in 2007 and is responsible for managing a range of community-related Government programmes.

Recently, 'Changing Ireland' asked Minister Phil Hogan about Pobal's future.

Minister Hogan pointed out that it was a matter for Government and not for he alone to decide:

“While it is possible that the services provided by Pobal could be provided internally by my Department or other Departments, it is unlikely that significant savings would arise given that staff resources would need to be redeployed, systems would require development and the necessary expertise in providing advice to the sectors concerned may not be readily available. 

“Additionally, because Pobal delivers funding on behalf of a number of Departments involved in supporting services in the not-for-profit, community and voluntary sectors, the Company is in a unique position to bring considerable value-added because of its comprehensive knowledge of the sectors.  The central administration and integration of services offered by the Company across the various programmes and the fact that the same staff work on a number of programmes are considerable strengths which would not be easily replicated if Departments separately implemented programmes.”

'Changing Ireland' also asked about €750,000 which was recently cut from Pobal’s budget to manage the Dormant Accounts Fund. We asked was this re-distributed to community initiatives or sent to ‘Brussels’?

The Minister replied that “efficiency are retained as savings (and) are not redistributed.”

Update in relation to former CDPs and the LCDP

The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government this afternoon released figures to ‘Changing Ireland’ that show the number of projects funded under the Local and Community Development Programme.

The Department’s statement reads:

"The latest phase of cohesion involves the integration of Community Development Projects (CDPs) with the 52 LDCs and the establishment of the approved alternative structures. At one stage there was a total of 185 CDPs/groups being funded under the [LCDP] programme, however this is now 153.