Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy will be aware that the process started in June 2007 with the review of the role of the agency and an examination of how it could be more effective. Although the main impetus was not financial, to answer the Deputy's question, the amount currently spent on the agency is €4.6 million, although some staff will transfer. There are costs with regard to staffing, community projects and so on, but there is much information in the review about how these things should be handled.

I specifically mentioned information for Government because one of the key issues with regard to the Combat Poverty Agency is that its views are taken on board in producing Government policy, legislation and decisions. One of the findings of the review was that the output of the agency was very good but its input was not. It was not effective in ensuring its voice was being heard.

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