Ahern attends UN session on poverty

The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, will represent the Government at a special session of the UN General Assembly this week on poverty, employment and social development.

Before leaving for the five-day meeting, which starts today, the Minister said the Government was fully committed to the goals set out in the Copenhagen Declaration on social development, agreed in 1995 by heads of state from 117 countries.

"Ireland is recognised internationally as one of the countries which has made a determined response to meeting the commitments entered into at Copenhagen by developing tangible initiatives to progress social development," he said.

Chief among these was the publication of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy in 1997 which sought to reduce poverty and social exclusion.

"Our aim is to build a society where everybody has both the opportunity and the incentive to contribute to, and share in, the benefits of social and economic development," said Mr Ahern.

Among the goals set at the 1995 summit were the eradication of absolute poverty, the promotion of full employment as a basic policy objective, an end to sexual discrimination and the attainment of universal and equitable access to education and primary healthcare.

In a briefing for the meeting the UN noted that progress towards achieving the goals had been uneven. Natural disasters, global and regional financial crises and resource constraints had affected many countries, in some cases reversing social gains.

Obstacles to achieving greater progress are to be identified, and the governments are due to agree on new measures aimed at overcoming these. Mr Ahern will address the conference on Wednesday.

The proceedings of the world meeting can be followed at: www.un.org/socialsummit