Debate contribution: Voluntary and Community Sector Funding

Debate contribution by Mr Colm Gildernew on 5 May 2026.

MLA: Mr Colm Gildernew
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 5 May 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Voluntary and Community Sector Funding
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5525050

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
I start by thanking the Members for tabling the motion on the local growth fund. At the time of the Brexit referendum in 2016, Sinn Féin warned that leaving the EU would inevitably mean the loss of EU funding, which would be catastrophic for the North. The British Government dismissed those warnings as scare tactics and promised that all lost EU funding would be replaced in full. However, the British Government never intended to keep their promise, and, as expected by anyone with an ounce of sense, they have cruelly slashed funding for essential services that had formerly been funded by the EU. Last year, the British Government announced that they were scrapping the Shared Prosperity Fund, which was a major source of funding to organisations that supported vulnerable people to find and sustain employment, and said that it would be replaced by the local growth fund. Under EU membership, the North received, on average, £40 million a year from the European social fund to support those vital employment programmes. This year, under the local growth fund, the North will receive only £9·2 million, which represents a huge cut in funding. In addition to the cut in funding, the British Government changed the funding model to one that focused heavily on capital funding, which is completely useless for most of our community organisations. That disastrous decision by the British Government has plunged many community and voluntary sector organisations into crisis, with many now facing closure. As many as 650 front-line staff now face redundancy, with many thousands more vulnerable people having those vital services ripped away from them. Despite the many months of campaigning by Sinn Féin and others, the British Government refused to back down and reinstate the funding. Instead, shamefully, they choose to prioritise funding weapons of war, announcing, only this week, a £50 million support package to the defence industry, calling it, ironically, or maybe not — maybe it is just gaslighting — the "defence growth fund". Time and time again, the people of the North suffer the consequences of harmful decisions that are taken in London by a British Government who neither think about nor care one iota about any of us here. I will turn now to the Sinn Féin amendment, which places the focus back where it should be; on the British Government. The original SDLP motion lets the British Government off the hook completely. Brexit was their disastrous policy. The people of the North voted to Remain. It was the British Government who promised to replace all lost EU funding — a promise that they had no intention of keeping — and it was they who refused to listen to the concerns of our community and voluntary sector when it warned of the consequences of the cut in funding. I am sure that the SDLP is well aware of the financial strain that the Executive are operating under, again as a result of British austerity and underfunding, so it should know that the Executive simply do not have the funding available to plug the gap. I find it strange that the SDLP seems to have taken on the role of political mudguard, deflecting responsibility away from the British Government and on to the Executive. Whilst I might not agree with the convoluted posturing of the —.
No, I will not. I am almost finished, Mark. Although I do not agree with the posturing of the SDLP, at least we can agree that more and more people are, rightly, coming to the conclusion that our interests will never be served by politicians in Britain and that a new Ireland represents the best hope for a bright and prosperous future for all our people.

626 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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