Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

The Minister's comments are cynical in the extreme. She is misleading the House and there are no two ways about that. She says she is looking at how the work of the Combat Poverty Agency can continue, but that is not what the Bill is about. The Minister should have the courage to say honestly that this is about abolishing the agency because it has been a thorn in her side and she does not want to hear what it has to say.

The Minister says she is interested in abolishing poverty, not the Combat Poverty Agency, but that is not true. If the Government was unable to abolish poverty during the past decade, when there was a boom on and endless money available, how can it possibly do so now when times are much more difficult? Not only is the Minister abolishing the Combat Poverty Agency, but she is also abolishing the agency's functions which are listed in the legislation. It will no longer be the responsibility of any agency to perform those functions, which were so clearly identified in 1986 by the then Minister for Social Welfare, Deputy Frank Cluskey. He identified the fact that there is an inherent reluctance by most Governments to face up to the extent of poverty. That is why the independent nature of the Combat Poverty Agency was so critical. It had to perform its role, irrespective of the colour of whatever Government happened to be in power. That agency operated on the basis of independent research, which is honest about the extent of poverty and the obstacles preventing the Government from dealing with it. The agency also sought to increase public awareness of poverty.

The alternative proposal to incorporate the agency into the National Economic and Social Development Office, NESDO, would have had some merit in so far as there was some prospect of independence there. Incorporating it into the social inclusion unit will mean that it will just vanish in time, but I think that was the intention.

The Minister lists all the other bodies that have responsibility for tackling poverty but clearly the Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion should be a key body with such responsibility. From the information that was disclosed to us recently, however, we know that from February to last week that sub-committee did not meet at all, in spite of severely worsening unemployment and the general situation concerning poverty. The Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion did not bother to meet for ten months, so the Minister should not tell me that it will provide a watchdog role that is so necessary to tackle poverty. This is a smokescreen. The only purpose of abolishing the Combat Poverty Agency is to silence a body that has done extremely good work in the past. The agency put it up to successive Governments to remember the poor and tackle the problems associated with poverty in a real and meaningful way. This is a shameful exercise and the Minister should withdraw the proposal.

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