THE Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, heard a demand yesterday from a Mayo women's group that every woman who wished should be allowed to sign on the live register.
At the launch of the Moygownagh Women's Work Project, Putting a Value on Women's Work, the Minister was told that being prevented from signing on denied a woman her right to retrain and limited her opportunities to re-enter the working world.
Ms Marian Flannery, group development worker, said women's organisations in north Mayo and west Sligo would not settle for the crumbs which might fall from the funding cake. That type of grant aid did not work.
The group's survey found that women were still on the periphery despite equality legislation and would remain so until the circumstances of rural women became an issue at Government level.
Mr De Rossa said the work of groups like that in Moygownagh was the life-blood of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy currently being developed to change the way in which the Government tackled the issues of poverty and social exclusion.