THE expected reduction in Ireland's share of European funding, under the European Social Fund and other headings, means the shortfall will have to be made up by the Government if "social exclusion" projects in urban and rural communities are to continue and grow.
These projects include 38 local partnerships and 33 community groupings set up at the behest of the EU and funded through Area Development Management Ltd. The partnerships bring together statutory bodies such as local authorities and voluntary and community groups to fund and run services and projects in their areas.
The present round of money for the local partnerships runs out at the end of this year. "We are confident there will be a local development programme by 2000," says Tony Murray of ADM. What is unclear is exactly how it will be implemented, though Mr Murray believes Brussels will want to see the partnerships continuing. What nobody knows is how much money will be available from the EU for the projects and whether the Government will make up the shortfall.
Between 1994 and 1999 the partnerships and community groupings (similar to partnerships but on a smaller scale) got £100 million and 75 per cent of that came from the EU, says Mr Murray.
"The State is not saying it will make up the difference," says Mr Tony Monks of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed. There will be partnerships after 2000, he says, but on what scale? People working in the partnerships don't know if they will have jobs after the end of this year, he says.
It concerns him that there is little or no debate on what is to happen to the whole social and community sector from 2000 on. "The issues are not really out in the open," he says.
Niall Crowley, of the Community Workers' Co-op, is also concerned at the lack of debate and, he says, there are many issues of great importance that need to be debated.
The reduction in EU funding has the capacity to affect Youthreach, doing valuable work with vulnerable young people, FAS projects such as the Return to Work scheme and plans by the Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform to fund childcare services in partnership areas as well as the partnerships and many other programmes.
"There is a vast number of areas involved," he says. "Over the last round of structural funds there's been a significant emphasis on social inclusion and that has to be maintained because we haven't achieved it."
In addition, new money needs to be invested in the development of a social economy - made up of projects which meet needs but are unlikely to be profitable, such as childcare in deprived areas - already a Government commitment in the Partnership 2000 agreement.
At the heart of the debate, he says, should be the question of whether, post-2000, we will prioritise infrastructure, such as roads, or human capital, such as projects to combat social exclusion.