CELT group in call for Government investment

The Centre for Environmental Living and Training (CELT) in Scariff is calling for the Government to look at investing in the voluntary sector and the potential employment opportunities there, rather than targeting it for cutbacks.

Bob Wilson of the organisation told The Clare Champion that arising from cutbacks to the funding it receives; potential job creation and training opportunities may be lost to the East Clare community. He called for the Government to re-evaluate its strategy and look at the potential that the sector has for those looking to upskill, retrain or get involved by providing a service.
“CELT is a registered charity for environmental education and training and has always found it a struggle to provide a valuable service with limited funding. Over the past year or so this has been even more difficult thanks to cutbacks. We see cutbacks to the community and voluntary and educational sector as being totally negative regarding the economic, social and environmental well being of the country,” he said.
Last year, one of the main events run by CELT, the summer weekend in the woods, was cancelled. This was partially due to funding being unavailable but the centre received another blow this year when funding was further decreased, which places next October’s weekend in the woods event at risk.
“We get some funding through the Heritage Fund and Department of the Environment for biodiversity but it is still only peanuts. Here, we are creating employment and the work we do is benefiting the community at large. On the one hand it’s frustrating that we are faced with cutbacks but it is still good that we are getting something. We are not ungrateful for the scraps we get but feel that greater investments in the voluntary sector would pay off and the result would be that the local community would benefit,” he outlined.
Mr Wilson explained that the issue of funding raised its head last year when the decision was made to pull the centre’s main summer event. He said that while that event was cancelled last year, the May weekend in the woods was a great success. However, it is now a case of going forward with planned events but with less money.
“It just means there is less money to improve the facilities we have, to get more tools but if there was more investment we could enlarge and improve all the things that we do, with a wide benefit for the community. We are always looking elsewhere for alternative funding to see what is available and we are looking to businesses in the community to support us. But things are tight and an event attracting hundreds of people to the area is still at risk. We do exhibitions around the country and especially locally at fairs and shows and all these things could be affected. Last year, we felt the first pinch but it has been exacerbated this year,” he added.
According to Mr Wilson, the weekend in the woods events attract a wide audience, with many visitors coming from other counties and thereby boosting the local economy, but while there is a charge for the event, the centre is heavily reliant on funding from Government bodies.
“We have to keep the prices low to make them available to a larger group of people because we want to make the things inclusive and that’s why we need the funding. It’s the people at the bottom end of the ladder that need these opportunities to improve their own situation. We have a lot of voluntary staff but we employ local people some times when an event is on. We would love to employ more people, which we have the scope to do if we had the support,” Mr Wilson added.
CELT host a number of training and awareness events and projects throughout the year that empower hundreds of people from all backgrounds by improving their knowledge and skills and therefore assist individuals gain employment.
“Another monetary benefit is the saving from not having to pay EU fines by looking after biodiversity. There are other benefits, which are difficult to express in monetary terms. Healthy biodiversity leads to clean air, clean water, good soil, leading to a healthy human community, thus better productivity, less sickness and longer lives,” he outlined.
He believes that by weighing up these benefits it could prove less expensive to fund them properly than to bail out a bad bank.“The Government is still kow-towing to big business in the mistaken belief that we can return to business-as-usual. This will only dig us deeper into the mire and force more people into the poverty trap. It is time for change – time to look at the bigger picture and to support communities and encourage them to build resilience to outside forces by funding skills and educational projects. That way, the economy will naturally grow at a steady rate, along with social and environmental improvement instead of going back to the boom, bust and bail-out nonsense,” he argued.
The centre is enlisting the local community to help improve the infrastructure of the workshop spaces in Bealkelly woods. The event will provide skills in natural construction techniques, furniture making and felt work. It is an adult-only event and will be held on July 17 and 18.
Visit www.celtnet.org; info@celtnet.org or phone 061 640765 for more information.