The abolition of the Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) at the beginning of this month was clearly not because it had succeeded in eliminating poverty.

THE slashing of 41 State agencies will be a “first installment” in a long term plan of reducing so-called quangos, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said last night.

GOVERNMENT TDs have called on the Minister for Social Affairs to abandon a proposal to scrap the Combat Poverty Agency as a cost-cutting measure.

ANTI-POVERTY groups have sharply criticised the new Government-backed national action plan to tackle poverty and social exclusion, launched yesterday by Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Coughlan.