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Editor's Notes
McCarthy proposals will break social contract with disadvantaged communities
by Philip O'Connor


Philip O'Connor
The McCarthy proposals will break the 18-year social contract with disadvantaged communities. The Government has not, as yet, endorsed the proposals in the McCarthy Report (Bord Snip Nua) for radical cuts across all areas of social spending.

Given the composition and "secretariat" of the group that produced the McCarthy Report, it can be seen as the wish list of the Department of Finance.  But, as The Irish Times commented, the report "presents a menu of financial options to Government without any reference to the social policy of the state" (Editorial, 17th July). And that is the core issue.

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Employer Forum
Community Sector Employers campaign against funding cuts

Part of the large crowd which attended the community sector protest rally at the Department of Finance, organised by SIPTU with the support of Impact and the CSEF, 3rd June.
The Community Sector Employers Forum (CSEF) has called on community organisations to support the campaign against cuts in services and jobs across the sector. The campaign was launched by SIPTU at a rally attended by 2,000 workers at Liberty Hall on 3rd June. The campaign is set to heat up in the autumn and is also supported by IMPACT.

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BenefIT - bringing IT to 4,000 people

Participants from the Finglas Group of the Dublin Community ICT Programme receive their certificatesThe world-wide-web impacts all aspects of our lives.  On a personal level the ability to access the internet for online purchases, researching a holiday or sending photos to loved ones far away, is a staple of modern life.

Without the means or skills to utilise the internet, people are cut off from the Knowledge/Information Society we live in. In the last year alone, over 1,650 people from community groups across Dublin took part in FIT certified courses. The courses were organised through the DEP Community ICT Programme which is funded by the Department of Communications and implemented in a partnership with Dublin City Council.

DEP has been involved in eInclusion Initiatives for 10 years and has published Participants from the Northbrook Centreseveral key reports on it. These include Digital Divide - Analysis of Uptake of IT in the Dublin Region (2003) and Learning IT - An evaluation of the Dublin Community ICT Project (2008). 

The first round of the present initiative (2008) delivered basic ICT skills to over 2,300 people in disadvantaged communities in Dublin. The training was delivered to FETAC Level 3 standard. The project also contributed ICT equipment to 30 centres/groups working in these communities.

In December 2008 DEP, in partnership with FIT (Fast-track to IT), secured funding from the BenefIT eInclusion Grant Scheme of the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources for a new programme. 

The project is training a further 1,650 new and low level technology users through 35 community organisations across Dublin & the Mid-East.  A further aim is to make the training system sustainable by training 150 people in these community organisations to continue to deliver eCert (Fetac Level 3) training modules to members of their groups beyond the lifetime of the project. 

1,106 people have received training to date of the total target of 1,650 people.  Additional project work such as Open Technology Forums, which developed IT plans for Ballyfermot and Ballymun, and further training places are being funded by match funding from Dublin City Council.

It is a general policy of Dublin Employment Pact to contract an independent formative evaluation of all its initiatives and the evaluation report on this initiative will be published on completion of the project in November 2009.

Dublin Employment Pact
The Dublin Employment Pact - Developing innovative solutions for employment and social inclusion in the Dublin Region. Visit our website.
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