Ms Deirdre McCarthy:

It would certainly have a value but there are issues that arise about previous declarations under the local community development programme where, for example, one of the target groups is Travellers and in the previous review, less than 1% of the resources of the programme benefited the Traveller population. Unless that is constantly monitored or the communities that are supposed to be the target groups are given a voice to raise their heads and say what is happening, we will not know. Unless there is advocacy and communities actively participate in the process, there will be no voice to say “I am among the most disadvantaged and this has not hit me”.

One of the actions we are supposed to take is employment supports and there is nothing to stop a company setting up outside Trinity College on graduation day and providing employment supports to people who walk out the door, buttoning down all its targets because it got 75 people into employment. Nobody is coming along to check whether those 75 people were disadvantaged. I would be fairly certain that if they have just graduated from Trinity they are less likely to be. It is a claim and it is a positive approach to take but it would need to be constantly independently monitored and the communities themselves need to be at the core to ensure that is happening.