Oireachtas hearing on alleged silencing of agency

OIREACHTAS members will today quiz the head of a new department unit set up to replace the Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) about its priorities, amid concern over the “silencing” of the outgoing agency’s role.

TDs and senators will query the new division’s director about how it will be run following the official abolition of the CPA last week.

Concerns have been raised by the CPA’s former director, Hugh Frazer, that the recent “silencing” of the agency through its merger within the department’s new division was part of a “wider social political effort to control dissenting voices”.