State ‘silences’ voices of poor and needy

THE body representing more than 100 civil society groups who act on behalf of the marginalised in society has warned that dissenting voices are being silenced amid fears any criticism of the Government will see a cut in their funding.

The Equality and Rights Alliance (ERA) warning comes as a former director of the Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) – writing in today’s Irish Examiner – suggests that the recent “silencing” of the agency via its recent merger with the Office for Social Inclusion (OSI) was part of a “wider political effort to control dissenting voices”.

In a hard-hitting assessment of present government policy, Hugh Frazer suggested that the systematic effort to close down independent voices had already been seen with the undermining of the Equality Authority as well as the budget cuts inflicted on the Irish Human Rights Commission.