I want to acknowledge the work done by and the commitment of the local community development projects and the range of services they have been providing throughout the country over many years. There are services for children, including crèches, after school and homework clubs, one-to-one tuition and back to education. There is a range of services for older people, including meals, activities and transport. They have also been a support in terms of advocacy for people having difficulties, whether with housing or welfare, and they have played a major role in employment and in back to employment. They are community services but there is also the work done in community development.

Over the years a vast range of experience, skills and insight has been built up. It has led to people from and living in communities addressing the problems in their communities and being able to solve them. It is all part of participatory democracy. It is an area which has seen cuts of 38% to date. There is a professional relationship with Pobal when it comes to transparency, oversight and tracking outcomes and that overall aim to tackle poverty and social exclusion through partnership has been progressing.

Recently, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government conducted an interim review on the local community development programme. It found it exceeded its targets in areas of high priority for Government, namely, education, training and employment.

The Minister knows from his community what disadvantage is like and he knows what community programmes have done to tackle disadvantage and to give hope and provide motivation. I acknowledge the big role he played in the establishment of the drugs task forces. What is now happening is that the programme and projects are being put out to public tender and to a procurement process. That could mean all the experience, insight and knowledge might be lost and, conceivably, a company could bid and win a contract for community development without having set foot in the community or having a base there. There is no guarantee that current services will continue. We do not know what will happen the infrastructure or employees. My question is why Ireland is the only country in the European Union that has decided to privatise community development.

That is common sense.

It is unusual to get an Opposition question that is balanced and that acknowledges that on the one hand the provision of community services in the State are comparable to anything in any member state in Europe and on the other hand-----

Why is the Government destroying them then?

-----as Deputy O'Sullivan said, that community development has been a focus of public policy under successive Governments in this country for a very long time. A decision has not been made to privatise community development in Ireland.

It has.

There is a very limited area where for reasons of efficiency and value for money a minor aspect of the fabric of community development in this country will be procured from outside. The existing programmes will continue, including the programme to which Deputy O'Sullivan referred - the drugs task forces which I established 20 years ago -that have contributed significantly in the areas worst ravaged by that problem, including Deputy O'Sullivan's constituency and mine. I would appreciate a note from her to inform what programmes in particular she is concerned about that are being procured from outside-----

The Minister should ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan.

Would you stay quiet?

Fine, Mattie, I will.

Do.

Deputy McGrath should allow the person who is representing his group to hear the reply.

I am just giving the Minister a bit of help.

At the moment I would like to hear from the questioner what particular programmes she is concerned about.

If what the Minister said was valid then concern and stress would not be caused to community development groups and communities around the country. I wish to focus on two groups in particular, one of which is the group in the north inner city, which is at a particular disadvantage because it does not have a partnership. A total of 16 of the projects have come together in a loose alliance and they are very much afraid of what the process will do to them. The other group of concern is island communities because as far as they are concerned the change will completely destroy what they have achieved. Currently, funding goes directly to the islanders and to the group in the north inner city and funding will now go from the communities which means all those years of working could be totally undermined by the new process. The projects are being tendered to for-profit companies. Up to now that has not been the ethos of community development groups. The buzzword now is social inclusion and a community activation programme but it does not address the needs of the communities involved.

It appears that the process is justified by Directive 2004/18/EC. However, my understanding is the directive has been replaced by Directive 2014/24/EU, which is the current law on public procurement. There are two preambles - 7 and 14 - which seem to suggest that agencies and public authorities in member states are free to organise social services in such a way that it does not entail such contracts. Will the Government at least delay the process and check the preambles to see whether the tendering process is necessary? I seek a delay to check the new directives.

I will, but perhaps the partnership areas are different from what Deputy O'Sullivan described in the north inner city. My understanding is that the partnerships, for example, can themselves bid in cases where the contract is put out to tender.

In terms of the islands, as it happens I am visiting such a situation next week - Arranmore off Donegal - in respect of an inclusion programme run by my Department to facilitate inclusion by people who have not had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with digital literacy. A particular programme is being run by the islands in that regard. I will raise the particular aspect Deputy O'Sullivan has raised with me. It may be different in the non-partnership areas. I will certainly look at the situation in the north inner city.