A GOVERNMENT decision to drop plans to publish a White Paper on the role of the voluntary sector was greeted with anger yesterday, writes Padraig O Morain.
The text for the White Paper had been drafted in the Department of Social Welfare by the end of 1994, but the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, has decided it does not reflect developments since then, including his national anti poverty strategy, according to a letter from the Department.
Mr Gerry Ryan, chief executive of the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland, yesterday expressed anger at the decision. Voluntary bodies had put an enormous amount of work into the preparatory stages of the White Paper, he said, and had been pressing for its publication.