Dear Editor,
Saturday last saw a first for Galway when community and voluntary groups protested on the streets of Galway against the cuts in funding for the sector. A sunny day lent to the carnival atmosphere and hundreds of young and old were in fine voice shouting out their chants against the cuts.

Well done to all who turned out on the day, the organisers and the Gardai for ensuring the safety of the marchers. Well done all.

Speaker after speaker highlighted the effects that the cuts would have on their communities and the people that would suffer with the loss of their facilities and support services. One thing was very clear - the voice of the community/voluntary sector will not be silenced on this issue and the large vote that the sector has will be used to good effect should there be an election.

The lack of politicians both local and national from the Government side was very evident and, like the public meeting the previous week, very few apologies were made on their behalf.

The proposed cutbacks in the sector are minimal when compared to the amount that the Government are putting into Nama. Some of the projects being cut have been providing support to the communities for many years and have proved very successful. In a lot of cases, these programmes and projects have not had an increased budget, but yet continue to provide a good front line service. Compare this to the Government whose budgets are increasing and where there is less value for money. Yet, every day we hear more scandalous exposure of hundreds of thousands being misspent by the Government who do not seem to be able to get a grip on its own expenditure, while sitting down telling us that we must all share the pain. Well if spending money needlessly like this is what pain is about, I want some of it.

In a lot of cases, the cutbacks are cosmetic. The jobs losses that will be incurred will lead to more unemployed and, in most cases, it will mean more being paid out in redundancy, social welfare benefits and ancillary costs then would have to be paid if the worker remained on the projects or programmes. The loss of community infrastructure in some communities should the cuts go ahead in community service programmes will also lead to the downgrading of supports within the community and the front line users of these services will again be cut.

We would ask our government through our local politicians not to implement these cuts and to stand by their promise that the vulnerable in society will not suffer. While animals have a right and are being looked after in the new programme for Government, perhaps the Green Party could look at the basic needs of our people first. The homeless need houses, the ill need proper medical care, the unemployed need jobs, people with disabilities need proper service, but I guess that the animals come first and communities needing support will not be high on the agenda.

I would challenge the Government politicians to come and meet the people that will be deprived of their services and visit the projects that they are proposing to cut back and explain in person why they are supporting such devastating cuts.

Yours Sincerely,
Tommy Flaherty
Ballybane Community Forum

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