THE inclusion of a national antipoverty strategy in the new national programme would ensure that a consensus was achieved on poverty, the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, said yesterday.
He was speaking at the presentation of the Combat Poverty Agency's strategic plan 1996-1999 and the review of the agency.
He said the national anti poverty strategy marked the first time an Irish government had committed itself to an across the board attack on poverty. It was now moving to a decisive stage, he said. All Government Departments were now finalising reviews of their activities from a "poverty proofing" perspective.
The director of the Combat Poverty Agency, Mr Hugh Frazer, said the Government and social partners should put the needs of the least well off in Irish society at the top of their agenda in drawing up a new National agreement. The agency supported demands that a new agreement should set aside significant resources to combat unemployment, social exclusion and low pay.
If too much was spent on wage increases and tax cuts, the amount available for addressing widespread poverty and social exclusion would be limited and the opportunity that existed to bridge the gulf between those in poverty and the rest of Irish society would be missed, Mr Frazer said.
The four objectives of the strategic plan are to promote social solidarity by influencing public policy and civil society in favour of those living in poverty; to seek to influence life chances through working for a reduction in long term unemployment and educational disadvantage; to work for the empowerment of people living in poverty and address the problems of disadvantaged urban and rural communities; and to promote the redistribution of income and resources in favour of those living in poverty through reform of the tax and social welfare systems and work towards ensuring that everyone has at least a minimally adequate income.