CE Workers secure victory for One Parent Families and People with Disabilities

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release Wednesday November 24, 2010 13:40 by Your Right - Your Fight Campaign

Joint Statement of SIPTU, OPEN, INOU, Mental Health Ireland

At the Dáil Social Protection Committee today Community Employment (CE) workers from the “Your Right – Your Fight” campaign welcomed Minister O’Cuiv’s statement that proposed welfare cuts to One Parent Families and People with Disabilities on CE were not being considered in the forthcoming budget.

The ‘Your Right-Your Fight’ CE campaign, aims to protect welfare entitlements for Community Employment workers and is jointly run by SIPTU, OPEN, INOU, Mental Health and supported by Inclusion Ireland.

The campaign was launched in response to the McCarthy Report and comments made by a Department of Finance spokesperson (Irish Independent, 12th May 2010) which indicated that welfare payments to these CE workers would be eliminated.

The Dáil Committee was informed that on 17th November a “Your Right – Your Fight” delegation met with the Minister for Social Protection, Eamon O’Cuiv. At the meeting Minister O’Cuiv stated that he is not considering proposals to cut welfare payments for CE workers who are lone parents or disabled.

SIPTU Organiser, Shonagh Byrne, stated “CE workers have won an important victory by campaigning and lobbying. Their efforts mean that One Parent Families and People with Disabilities can continue to access employment and training and continue to make a valuable contribution to the Community Sector”.

The impact of removing welfare allowances to one parent families and people with disabilities would be two fold, she said.

“Firstly it would have a devastating effect on community services. There are over 10,000 CE workers in receipt of a reduced welfare payment who work in a variety of important services, including Community Childcare, Meals on Wheels, Elder Care, Disability Services, Drug Rehabilitation, Environmental Services to name a few. The removal of the welfare payments would make it financially unviable for many workers to continue to access employment and training causing much of the Community Sector to simply collapse,” she said.

“Secondly, the personal effect on affected CE workers would be devastating. CE gives an opportunity to One Parent Families and People with Disabilities to gain formal qualifications and contribute to their communities.”

Francis Byrne of OPEN stated that “cutting welfare allowance would drive 5,000 One Parent Families to a level of deprivation which would impact hugely on them and should be unacceptable in any decent society. Any savings identified by the Department would be offset in the medium-term to long-term by the continued dependence of these families on income supports, health service and other publicly provided resources. In short, there is no economic or social imperative to apply cuts to Ireland’s poorest families.”

Hilary who is a CE worker in receipt of disability benefit explains how she has benefitted from CE:

“Personally, I cannot begin to explain exactly how beneficial being on the CE Scheme has been for me. I finally feel I can consider full-time employment, and during the last 3 years I have had the opportunity to study successfully. Since the scheme is designed to help people get back to work, I think my experience has been a very good example of how the scheme can be a huge success - it was definitely the most positive career move I have made in years."

For further information contact;

Paul Hansard (SIPTU) 087 7266022
Shonagh Byrne (SIPTU) 087 7454581
Frances Byrne (OPEN) 0868143297