Groups rally behind Combat Poverty

TWENTY-SEVEN voluntary and community groups have rallied to the defence of the Combat Poverty Agency which is waiting to hear its fate after a ministerial review recommended it be scrapped as a cost-cutting measure.

The organisations, under the umbrella of the Community Platform, have urged Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin to reject the recommendation that she subsume elements of the independent agency into the Office for Social Inclusion in her own department.

The platform, which includes groups such as Age Action, the Simon Community, Threshold and the National Women’s Council, says any diminution of Combat Poverty’s status would impact negatively on hundreds of thousands of people.