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.