Downsizing the Community Sector

Published: Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Changes in employment and services in the voluntary and community sector in Ireland, 2008-2012

Executive summary and key judgements This report is an examination of the cumulative impact of the cuts in spending on the voluntary and community sector in Ireland over 2008-12, specifically examining their effect on employment. The voluntary and community sector had, at the start of the financial crisis in 2008, a value of ﾀ6.5bn, received about ﾀ1.89bn in state funding and employed 53,098 people (full-time equivalents). From 2008-2012, government spending on current services fell -2.82%, our benchmark. Using the government's own figures from the budgets of 2008-2012, government funding for the voluntary and community sector has fallen
by the following amounts:

Health services, the largest funder - 4.5% to -29%
Voluntary social housing, the next largest - 54%
National supports -48%
Local Community Development Programme - 35%
Initiatives against drugs - 29%
Family support projects - 17%
Dormant accounts -87%

In response, voluntary and community organisations have sharply reduced their spending, their last options being the dismissal of staff and the closure of services. Such a dramatic full in funding is estimated, based on a contraction in the order of 35%, to lead to a loss of employment in the voluntary and community sector of 11,150 jobs by end 2013 and that employment in the sector may be down to 36,638 by end 2015.

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