Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

No. The Labour Party will not agree any Order of Business because of the way in which the Government proposes to abolish the Combat Poverty Agency. As I said yesterday, the Government has done this in the sneakiest and the most underhand way by including it as an amendment to the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. The agency is being dissolved and taken back into the social inclusion unit in the Department of Social and Family Affairs. This same unit poverty proofed the budget and gave the green light to all the cuts being implemented in the same Bill. As outlined by Deputy Shortall, 12 different measures provided for in the Bill will impact severely on the poorest people in this country. The Government has decided to close the only independent body established to examine poverty issues and to bring its staff back into the social inclusion unit where they will not be able to bark.

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