EU funds for NI community groups ending

Community groups in Northern Ireland are expected to find out on Friday what they will get to replace millions of pounds of EU funding.

Many have expressed fears for their future as a long-running funding stream comes to an end.

The cash from the European Social Fund (ESF) is due to stop in the UK Friday as a result of Brexit.

It is expected to be replaced by the UK government's Shared Prosperity Fund.

BBC News NI understands that decisions involving funding of about £57m over two years from this fund will be outlined on Friday.

The UK Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is understood to be making more money available than the £42m over two years originally advertised to tackle economic inactivity.

However, the new scheme is still expected to be oversubscribed.

Declan Doherty, chief executive of Derry Youth and Community Workshop, said he had "no hope whatsoever" the replacement UK government funding would be enough to keep staff in work.

He said 25 of his staff members would lose their jobs on Friday.

"We are now one day away from the end of the programme and they haven't said anything other than they are working hard to finalise it," Mr Doherty said.

"I really have no faith in them."

Sarah Bowden runs the Greater Village Regeneration Trust in south Belfast.

The organisation works with young people with complex needs who are not in education, providing them with training, support and a pathway to employment.

"I've worked here for 17 years and I've never been in this situation before," she said.

"If you came and looked at the young people we worked with, the prospect of losing this service is shameful.

"It's not just training, it's a safe space and a lifeline for these young people.

"For that to be taken away from a community already suffering deprivation is a scandal - our politicians should be ashamed of themselves."

Barry McMenamin, regional operations manager for Mencap, said the ESF provided two-thirds of its annual funding of about £700,000.

Mr McMenamin said the charity would still be functional once EU money ended, but it would be skeleton service.

"We are having to reduce our service and how we can support people by two-thirds," he said.

"We have applied for that funding [the UK Shared Prosperity Fund] but still have no indication if we are successful or not.

"Regardless if we are successful, it still means there will be a gap in funding."

Liam Devine is chief executive of the Clanrye Group which runs programmes across Northern Ireland and is based in Newry and south Down.

The group has had to put 50 of its 130 staff on protective redundancy notices since January.

Two of those are a husband and wife, with Mr Devine saying "you can only imagine their situation coming into work this morning".

"I can point to a staff that have a vocation as opposed to a job, they are all very invested in what they do, they are all very invested in the people that we serve," he said.

Celine McStravick, chief of executive of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA), said the funding was "absolutely essential" to making Northern Ireland society work.

She said that ESF was used by 67 members represented by the council and amounted to around 1,700 employees.

"I have been inundated with emails, telephone calls and meetings with our members; who are angry, they are frustrated, they're feeling disrespected, they're feeling undervalued and I don't think anyone wants to feel like that no matter where they work", she added.

A Northern Ireland Department for Enterprise (DfE) spokesperson said the department empathised with the concerns of the entire sector but had no ability to finance their work beyond the end of March.

It said the UK government had made clear that decisions made and allocations to projects would be made solely by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

"ESF funding support was due to end in 2022 but the DfE extended that support to March 2023 to avoid the cliff edge and give DLUHC time to put replacement funding in place," the spokesperson added.

The Department for Levelling Up said the Shared Prosperity Fund would "at a minimum, match previous EU funding in Northern Ireland".