The voluntary sector, which employs an estimated 35,000 people in the North, is facing a funding crisis and potential widespread job losses when European grant programmes come to an end, business and community leaders have warned.
European grant-aid programmes, including the Peace and Reconciliation Programme, have generated a large proportion of employment in the voluntary and social sector in Northern Ireland.
The current Peace II programme of grants is expected to be allocated before the end of the summer but community groups have already been warned that the level of finance available will not match previous programmes.
According to Mr Philip McDonagh of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Belfast, the sector could become increasingly vulnerable to job losses because there will be less money to go around.
"Jobs are at risk because of the reduced level of funding. Many voluntary organisations are already feeling the pain and many are going to scale down their organisations.
"This raises the question of sustainability for these organisations. The issue is how do voluntary groups make themselves sustainable without peace money in Northern Ireland? It is inevitable that they are going to have to find alternative sources of income to survive," Mr McDonagh said.
According to the business advisers, unless voluntary organisations can secure new finance they could have a serious impact on the North's unemployment statistics.
Community leaders say the current tranche of peace money will not expire until 2004 but they admit many people are now asking: "What happens when the money runs out?"
The Belfast European Partnership Board is hosting a conference today to address that fundamental question. Ms Deirdre McBride, chief executive, said the debate should not just be about employment numbers. "The immediate issue is the uncertainty over Peace II funding and what the shortfall will be. Voluntary organisations need to plan how they will cover that shortfall.
"Community and voluntary groups have made a huge contribution to Northern Ireland and that should not be underestimated," Ms McBride said.
She said the conference today would examine the questions surrounding the sustainability of these groups.
"We need to ask what role the private sector should play in the future of voluntary work and what responsibility the government has to this sector - but we have also have to acknowledge the role these organisations have played to date," Ms McBride added.
