Charites Unite to Call for Plan to Sustain Public Services [20 November 2012]

Joint Press Statement: 20 November 2012

Issued on behalf of The Wheel, Disability Federation of Ireland, Carers Association, Irish Rural Link, Carmichael Centre for Voluntary Groups, National Youth Council of Ireland and Older & Bolder.

The Wheel, Disability Federation of Ireland, Irish Rural Link, Carmichael Centre, The Carers Association, the National Youth Council of Ireland, and Older & Bolder are calling on Government to produce a plan for sustainable public services and to ensure no expenditure cuts for social infrastructure in Budget 2013. 

We are making this call on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people and communities that depend on Ireland’s public services and social infrastructure at all stages of the lifecycle.  

The call is being made to ensure children, young people, people of working age, older people, people with disabilities and the people who care for all of these groups, receive the services and supports they need to live life with dignity.  There are certain public service outcomes that people have a right to expect and we have to commit to providing.

It is our collective judgement that public expenditure cuts to date have pushed our public services and social infrastructure beyond the sustainability point.  

Since the start of the crisis in 2008, budgets for many services have been cut by 20% with real hardship now being experienced by people who depend on our public and social services.  Without a plan for sustainable public services, we risk doing severe damage to Ireland’s social fabric by the time the recession ends.

Government regularly makes the important point about the need to achieve sustainability in our public finances.  We agree.  The challenge however is to do this while preserving our social fabric and the public services that people rely on. 

Government has a plan to balance national income and expenditure, it has the Croke Park Agreement, it has a jobs plan, but there is no plan to sustain public and social services for people who need them. 

A successful economy depends on a successful society: we can’t have one without the other. A plan for sustainable public services is the only way to achieve a sustainable economic recovery.  Yet our current national recovery programme is degrading the social basis for a sustainable future. 

We are asking Government to produce a plan for sustainable public services and to ensure no expenditure cuts for social infrastructure in Budget 2013. 

We offer our support to Government in making a plan for sustainable public services and in making the plan work, and we commit to involving people and communities in this collective effort to ensure success.  

//ENDS