|
|
Functions of Agency.
|
4.—(1) The functions of the Agency shall be—
|
|
| |
(a) to advise the Minister and make recommendations to him regarding community development policies and community development programmes, in relation to self-help, poverty and social services and, with the approval of the Minister, to undertake such programmes on an experimental basis in co-operation, where appropriate, with statutory bodies and voluntary agencies and to evaluate such programmes;
|
|
| |
(b) to promote and co-ordinate programmes in relation to self-help, poverty and social deprivation, with the object of achieving more effective action by statutory bodies and voluntary agencies;
|
|
| |
(c) to ascertain and specify communities in which there is a high degree of poverty and social deprivation;
|
|
| |
(d) to foster and assist, including by financial or material aid, projects of community involvement and activity, and to facilitate the mobilisation of self-help particularly in communities in which there is a high degree of poverty and social deprivation;
|
|
| |
(e) to advise the Minister on the social aspects of economic and social planning;
|
|
| |
(f) to advise the Minister on the development of community-based services, including in particular improved training and the supply of community development staff;
|
|
| |
(g) to draw on and evaluate research on self-help, poverty and social deprivation by third level educational and other bodies, and to promote, and, with the approval of the Minister, to engage in, such research from time to time on specific projects;
|
|
| |
(h) to promote greater awareness, accessibility and co-ordination of social services;
|
|
| |
(i) to collect and disseminate information on community development, self-help, poverty and social deprivation;
|
|
| |
(j) to promote greater public understanding of the nature, causes and extent of poverty and social deprivation and the measures required to alleviate them;
|
|
| |
(k) to perform such tasks and submit such reports as the Minister may from time to time direct.
|
|
| |
(2) The Minister may by regulations amend the functions of the Agency with the consent of the Minister for Finance.
|
|
| |
(3) The Agency shall in the performance of its functions comply with such directions as may from time to time be given to it by the Minister.
|
|
| |
(4) A statutory body may and, where the Minister having statutory responsibility for it so directs shall, co-operate with the Agency in the performance of its functions.
|
