Poverty agency - Voices of marginalised being silenced

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

Hugh Frazer, who was director of the CPA from 1987 to 2001, believes the move was designed to silence the agency, as it had essentially become an embarrassment to the Government because of its success in moving the poverty issue to the centre of political debate.

The Government was busy for years promoting itself as the great success in boosting Irish prosperity, so the existence of poverty in its midst was an embarrassing contradiction.

From 1987, successive ministers for social welfare were not always comfortable with the message espoused by the agency, but they had the self-confidence to value alternative sources of advice. They understood that it was healthy within a democracy to encourage open, informed debate on issues of social justice.

But the current government has been more interested in stifling debate even though dissenting voices are what separate democracy from dictatorship.

In 2006, the Department of Social Welfare vetoed the publication of a book that would have enhanced the CPA’s standing. The following year it blocked the appointment of a new director to replace the outgoing one who had moved to another job, and then the department instituted a review of the CPA in which the input was carefully regulated to elements that were critical of the agency.

The outcome of the review was predictable. The amalgamation of the CPA and the Office of Social Inclusion in the Department of Social and Family Affairs has to be seriously questioned, as the civil service has been quite limited in tackling poverty. The CPA is now marginalised within the policy-making process.

In what looks like a naked attempt to smother dissent, there is evidence of systematic efforts to control and even emasculate independent voices on issues of social injustice. The Equality Authority has had its budget slashed, as has the Irish Human Rights Commission, while the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) has been merged into the Office of the Minister of State for Integration within the Department of Justice.

The influx of experienced CPA workers into the Office of Social Inclusion and the addition of theNCCRI staff within the Department of Justice could enhance the expertise in those departments in relation to fighting poverty. The mergers could provide dynamic leadership by stimulating and informing public debate on the issues of poverty,

In the tradition of the civil service, however, it is more likely that the enthusiasm and commitment of those idealistic people will be dulled and suffocated by the bureaucratic process.

Eliminating the agency was part of a power struggle in which narrow-minded bureaucrats have probably won out.