FÁS-supported businesses in north Dublin are outraged by a decision to withdraw funding for jobs the agency was already committed to backing. Several of the enterprises affected had already hired staff on the basis of signed commitments from FÁS to fund the jobs.
In another case, a village centre in Darndale which offered jobs to seven applicants on foot of a FÁS commitment has been told the funding is not available after all.
The funding withdrawals, affecting 12 community businesses in disadvantaged areas of the capital, arise from budgetary constraints on the FÁS social economy programme.
Funding for the programme has not, however, been subjected to the cutbacks imposed on FÁS in other areas. Instead, the agency received a 50 per cent increase in its allocation for the programme in 2003 - from €20.55 million last year to €30.836 million.
Mr Greg Craig, a spokesman for the agency, said that, as a result of the "extraordinary success of the programme", this substantially increased allocation would not be sufficient to meet all the demands from new projects.
FÁS was reviewing how best to schedule the support already committed to approved projects so as to ensure "as equitable a distribution of funds as possible", he said.
Mr Donal Kerr, the agency's community services director, said officers from FÁS would meet the businesses affected in north Dublin to discuss the situation. FÁS would not "walk away" from legally binding commitments to fund the projects, but some initiatives might have to be delayed.
The agency was caught between two legal commitments - one to the communities concerned, and the other to stay within its budget.
Asked how the difficulty could have arisen given the 50 per cent increase in FÁS's social economy budget, Mr Kerr said much of the increase had been swallowed up by existing projects.
The businesses affected provide services including childcare, landscaping, security, sports and leisure and a laundry for the Traveller community.
Ms Noreen Byrne, a spokeswoman for the enterprises concerned, said they were located "in some of the most marginalised areas in the country where access to such services has previously been non-existent".
Ms Byrne is chairwoman of Doras Buí, a lone-parent resource centre and crèche in Coolock, one of three businesses which took on staff in recent days on foot of a funding commitment from FÁS, which has now been withdrawn.