Action For Community Employment In Northern Ireland

EDM number 273 in 1995-96, proposed by Roy Beggs on 15/01/1996.

That this House deplores the recent announcement to reduce the resources available to the Action for Community Employment programme by ú12.5 million or approximately 25 per cent. of its current budget in the 1996-97 financial year with the possibility of 2,500 ACE posts being lost in Northern Ireland; believes that such a sudden cutback will have a devastating impact on the elderly, disabled disadvantaged and most vulnerable in society whose quality of life has been enhanced by the support given by those employed and receiving training in ACE schemes; and calls upon the Secretary of State to review the announced cutback of ACE funding and to make possible a better managed reduction of employment in existing ACE schemes in order to limit damage to successful, well-managed ACE schemes which are getting the long-term unemployed back to work and serving the community well.

This motion has been signed by a total of 36 MPs.