Stealthy privatisation of community and public services

February 2015 19

SICAP NEWS

HURSDAY the 19th February

2015 is a day of great signiﬁcance

for workers and organisations in

the Local and Community Development

sector. On that day Local Development

companies will be informed of the out-

come of a tendering process imposed by

the Department of Environment (DoE)

for participation in the new Social

Inclusion and Community Activation

Programme (SICAP). This programme

will run from April 2015.

These ﬁfty-one local development

companies were, in eﬀect, forced to

submit detailed competitive tenders

for thirty-two designated “lots” based

on county boundaries. These same com-

panies have been operating in the same

geographical areas for almost twenty

years delivering Government-funded

programmes that tackle poverty and

social exclusion. New structures in the

Local Authorities will make the deci-

sions in relation to the oﬀer of contracts

and the oversight of programme imple-

mentation. This fundamental change in

local development will have a seriously

detrimental impact on the poorest and

most disadvantaged communities across

the country.

In early 2014, in a fundamental shift

from previous practice, the Department

of Environment, Community and Local

Government [DoE] decided that their

new SICAP funding programme would be

subject to a public-procurement process.

This requires the existing local devel-

opment companies to participate in

competitive bidding, in some cases with

each other, or with private or voluntary-

sector providers. This approach was

presented in the context of the reform

of Local Government and as being a req-

uisite for compliance with new European

Union procurement Directive.

The local development companies were

originally established by Government

in the early 1990s to tackle-long term

unemployment in the most disadvan-

taged areas. They have developed and

managed a whole range of initiatives

and services including access to employ-

ment, adult education, training and

lifelong learning, enterprise support ,

community development, child-care and

rural development. At this stage they

also managed a plethora of Government

funded programmes including the local

employment service, LEADER, Jobs

Clubs, TUS, Rural Social Scheme, and the

Community Employment programme.

Despite the general success of the work

undertaken, the previous and current

Governments have consistently targeted

these companies for substantial cuts and

continual restructuring. Since 2008

their core budget has been cut by over 50

per cent. The Community Development

Programme was terminated. The work

of the Local Employment Service was

privatised last year. Further funding

cuts of between ﬁve and ﬁfteen per-

cent were imposed in the most recent

budget. The forthcoming announcement

of contracts for SICAP could result in the

closure of up to ﬁfteen local development

companies.

Almost 2,000 workers are employed

in these community-based local devel-

opment companies. The majority are

members of Trade Unions, mainly SIPTU.

The Union members have fought a rear-

guard action over the past two years to

try and prevent the damage to this vital

community infrastructure. Diﬀerent

tactics have been adopted to engage

with the local employers and with the

Department that controls the funding

and determines role and function of the

companies.

However, Senior oﬃcials in the DoE

w i t h t h e b a ck i n g of t he pr e v i ou s Mi n i s t er,

Phil Hogan, have been determined to

drive these public services down the

route to privatisation. This approach

is consistent with the broader agenda

being pursued by this Government. The

Minister refused to meet with the work-

ers representatives. The Department

has ignored a recent Labour Court rec-

ommendation that there should be full

and inclusive engagement between the

Unions, Employers and the funding

Departments.

The signs are ominous. The current

obsession among senior public servants

is to force signiﬁcant sections of essen-

tial public and community services into

private ownership, through enforced

procurement and privatisation. This

is imposing increased hardship and

despair on the poorest and most vul-

nerable communities, many of whom

are being abandoned to market forces

for future services. •

LEADER, Jobs Clubs, TUS, Rural Social Scheme,

and Community Employment programme: all

out to tender. By David Connolly

Stealthy

privatisation of

community and

public services

Senior oﬃcials

in the DoE

with the

backing of

the previous

Minister,

Phil Hogan,

have been

determined

to force

these public

services down

the route to

privatisation

“

disguised as

procurement

policy