Irish Social Policy Links |
Government Departments
| Social Inclusion Agencies | Social
Partners | Advisory Bodies
Government Departments
Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs
www.pobail.ie
Minister: Eamon Ó Cuiv TD
Responsibilities: community development, rural development, National Drugs
Strategy
Department of Education and Science
www.education.ie
Minister: Batt O'Keeffe TD
Responsibilities: education, educational disadvantage, lifelong learning
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
www.entemp.ie
Minister: Mary Coughlan TD
Responsibilities: employment, labour force, industrial relations
Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government
www.environ.ie
Minister: John Gormley TD
Responsiblilities: housing policy, local government, environment
Department of Finance
www.finance.gov.ie
Minister: Brian Lenihan TD
Responsiblilties: annual Budget, Government spending
Department of Health and Children
www.dohc.ie Minister: Mary Harney TD
Responsiblilties: annual Budget, Government spending
Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
www.justice.ie
Minister: Dermot Ahern TD
Responsibilities: equality, refugee policy, legal system
Department of Social and Family Affairs
www.welfare.ie
Minister: Mary Hanafin TD
Responsibilities: social welfare system, anti-poverty policy
The Office for Social Inclusion (OSI) in the Department
of Social and Family Affairs is responsible for the co-ordination of the
National Action Plan Against Poverty and Social Exclusion (NAPincl), which
incorporates the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
www.socialinclusion.ie
Department of the Taoiseach
www.taoiseach.ie
Responsiblities: social partnership, economic and social policy, information
society
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Social Inclusion Agencies
Pobal
www.pobal.ie
Pobal, formerly Area Development Management, is an independent company
designated by the Government and the European Commission to support local
economic and social development. Pobal manages a number of programmes
targeted at countering disadvantage and exclusion and promoting reconciliation
and equality.
Citizens Information Board
www.citizensinformationboard.ie
The Citizens Information Board (formerly Comhairle) is the national support
agency responsible for supporting the provision of information, advice
and advocacy on social services. It provides citizens information,
support for information providers and social policy and research information.
Equality Authority
www.equality.ie
The Equality Authority is the statutory agency working towards the elimination
of discrimination on the grounds of gender, age, disability, race, religion,
marital status, family status, sexual orientation and membership of the
Traveller community.
Family Support Agency
www.fsa.ie
The Family Support Agency was established in 2003 and is a statutory body
providing and upporting family mediation and family support services.
National Disability Authority
www.nda.ie
The NDA is the statutory agency which advises the Government on disability
policy. It also undertakes research on disability in Ireland and monitors
the implementation of codes and standards aimed at promoting equality
for people with disabilities.
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Social Partners
Social partnership is a means of reaching agreement between the Government
and the Social artners on economic and social policy. It comprises 4 "pillars":
employers, unions, farmers and the community and voluntary sector. Its
members are:
Irish Congress of Trade Unions
www.ictu.ie
Irish Business and Employers Confederation
www.ibec.ie
Irish Farmers Association
www.ifa.ie
The Community and Voluntary Pillar is made up of a number
of organisations:
Community Platform
The Community Platform is a group of national community and voluntary
sector networks and organisations engaged in combating poverty and social
exclusion and promoting equality and social justice. Its current member
organisations are:
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Advisory Bodies on Economic and Social Policy
National Economic and Social Council
www.nesc.ie
NESC advises the Government on economic and social development. The Council
is made up of nominees from the social partners as well as representatives
from Government departments.
National Economic and Social Forum
www.nesf.ie
NESF monitors and evaluates the implementation of policies and programmes
aimed at achieving equality social inclusion.
Economic and Social Research Institute
www.esri.ie
ESRI is a national independent research body on economic and social policy.
It undertakes and publishes a wide range of research studies on all aspects
of social and economic development.
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sites.
If you find a broken link, please let us know at library@combatpoverty.ie.
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