The Combat Poverty Agency is due to formally close within weeks and will be officially integrated into the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
The agency, which has been an independent voice in tackling poverty and social exclusion for more than 20 years, published its last annual report this morning.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin has defended the move, arguing that the integration will save money and provide for “strengthened” anti-poverty measures.
However, it has been widely criticised by anti-poverty groups and Opposition parties who say it is a way of silencing an agency which has been critical in the past of Government policies. The former head of the agency, Kevin O'Kelly, has described the move as a "hostile takeover".
In a foreword to its 2008 annual report.
Combat Poverty’s chairman Brian Duncan said he had had mixed feelings on the integration of Combat Poverty into the Office for Social Inclusion.
“On the one hand, it will end our independence and our ability to speak out publicly on issues that cause and perpetuate poverty... On the other hand, it offers the opportunity to devote more resources to address poverty. It also provides better access to key policy makers, which has been a challenge for the agency in recent years,” he said.
He said it was to the “credit of successive governments” that they had supported the agency’s work, even though it was occasionally a strong critic of some policies and practices.
Latest official figures on poverty indicate that while the level of poverty fell during the peak of the economic boom, the number of people considered at risk of poverty did not change significantly.
The annual report also points out that children have a higher consistent poverty rate than all of the other groups, and account for nearly 40 per cent of all those in consistent poverty.
It identifies a number of new challenges which the Government will need to consider in framing anti-poverty policy. These include:
* Ensuring full economic, social, cultural and political participation of minority groups.
* The persistence of educational disadvantage, which disproportionately affects children from poor families.
* The disproportionate experience of health inequalities on people living in poverty.
Mr Duncan said that while challenges remain for the Government, he was proud of the agency's work in tackling poverty in recent decades through offering professional, unbiased advice to successive governments.
“The work has contributed to significant changes in public expectations and political ambitions, resulting in new targets, strategies and investments to tackle issues such as child poverty, educational disadvantage, health inequalities and other issues,” he said.