Protest VTOS Cutbacks, Galway

by 1 of Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland Mon Sep 15, 2003 19:35

Orla, would it be possible to give a bit of background info along with the announcement of the protest. Many people won't know of the details of the VTOS schemes, or the campaign group involved. I'm sure you must have the text of a campaign leaflet or similar that you could put up to accompany the announcement. In general, it is better not to post a bare announcement of an event to Indymedia. It is not intended to be an announcement service. Articles with background information also attract more attention from readers (even if some of it is not what you want!).

by pat c Mon Sep 15, 2003 19:48

This is a national issue, there have also been protests in Finglas. It relates to the abolition of a €63 a week child minding allowance. This effectively means that many people will not be able to access the courses.

by John - ISN Mon Sep 15, 2003 19:55

Two protests against the cuts of child care payments for VTOS (adults returning to fulltime education) took place today in Finglas and Cabra. I attended the Finglas protest along with about 70 others. Both protests were covered on the RTE 6.01 News and TG4 news.

Good luck to the Galway protesters. Maybe its time for a National Demonstration against these cuts?

by pat c Mon Sep 15, 2003 19:57

15th July 2003

Major cuts in the childcare grants to Vocational Education Committees mean that second chance education and training opportunities will be denied to unemployed adults and early school leavers in the forthcoming school year. Equality of access to the education system is being undermined once again for the educationally disadvantaged, and especially for women.

A scheme of childcare grants was introduced in 1998 to enable the participation of individuals on VTOS, Youthreach and Senior Traveller Training programmes, who otherwise would not have been able to participate on these second chance further education programmes due to childcare responsibilities.

The allocation for Childcare grants this year has been drastically cut by 37% by the Department of Education and Science.

These unprecedented cuts have not been announced publicly. Rather Vocational Education Committees have been informed of their budgetary allocation for the forthcoming year, which in reality is 37% less than what they had to manage on last year.

Costs on a year by year basis go up, not down. Inflation has gone up not down. VECs were expecting an increase in funding not a decrease. Decreased funding means decreased provision of childcare support to the most vulnerable and in turn means that early school leavers and unemployed adults will not be able to participate in further education programmes this autumn. The TUI believes that these cuts will compound the inequality already existing in educational provision and demands that they be immediately rescinded.

Annette Dolan
Assistant General Secretary

by pat c Mon Sep 15, 2003 20:01

Funding cuts leave parents in limbo over creche care
Irish Independent, 02/09/2003 (For the attention of editors who have an itchy finger on the delete button: please note that more info was asked for. I tracked down this & the TUI statement. I do not have time right now to rewrite them. Please do not delete them. PC)

Hundreds of disadvantaged parents hoping for a second chance at education still do not know if they will have creche facilities for their children this term.

This follows a 37pc cut in childcare funding which left parents on dedicated early school leaver and second chance education programmes in limbo.

The cuts are expected to hit those on Vocational Education Training schemes hardest. VTOS is primarily aimed at people receiving unemployment or disability payments, and lone parents who seek to return to education.

Students hoping to take part in Youthreach courses and the Senior Travelling Training School also look set to have their weekly €63 childcare grant cut.

This year Vocational Educational Committees (VECs) sought €6m for childcare expenses, but are getting only half that amount from the Department of Education and Science.

The department says its allocation this year of €2.98m compares with an initial allocation of €3.01m for 2002. Due to one-off savings on other programmes in 2002, it proved possible to increase the initial allocation by €1.7m last year.

Some VECs have already decided that childcare centres will close this autumn as a result of the cuts.

by Orla Ni Chomhrai Mon Sep 15, 2003 20:39 nichomhrai at eircom dot net

Hi Eds. sorry about that. I was so focused on getting the info about the protest up that I forgot I should give more background info on it.


Thanks Pat C for posting those pieces of information (saves me some work).

Hi John nice to hear from someone who was out. I haven't been involved with this as I am not on VTOS, but I got a message about the protest today. I think the idea of a national protest is a good one, maybe on the weekend so that people who are working but support the people on VTOS can go? If you hear of any plans for a national demo maybe you can e-mail me and I can let the organisers of the protest here know? I will let them know about this site anyway.


I think this is a huge issue, and goes way beyone those immediately involved. It is yet more cutbacks and ones against what the government feel are the most vulnerable in society. They treat people who they see as vulnerable as dirt because they think they will get away with it, so I think it is great that there is a fight-back (between this and other things like, the anti-bin tax, and in Galway the campaign against the attempt to bring in oppressive laws).

by Orla Wed Sep 17, 2003 00:11 nichomhrai at eircom dot net

I was not able to get to the protest but got a report back.

It went well, with over 50 showing up (maybe more). One down side I would see is that it was a bit out of the way and not so visible or easy for supporters to go to. I will update on any new developments.