Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I was very disturbed when Colm O’Cinneide said the problem in England
was that they had too much money.
And then he didn’t say how much money they had.
And luckily it was clarified, £70 million.
Because if we got close to too much, that would be magnificent
in an Irish context.
But let’s be clear about slashing cuts and the ‘business as usual’ message
that we’re getting.
If you cut money and you’ve a limited amount of money,
you can do some things, and you can do them well.
Some cases, some research, some case work, some development work.
That’s true.
If you still have the human resources to do them well.
But the key bit about this infrastructure, it has to do enough things
to make an impact.
It has to do enough things to match the scale of the problem.
It has to do enough things to change public opinion,
to change practice in the public and the private sector and
to create a new dispensation for Irish society.
It’s about quantity and quality, and to be honest both have been compromised.
The ERA research identifies how they’ve been compromised.
Brian and Kathy have set out how very clearly
that the independence of both bodies has been breached.
And in particular, they emphasise, the lack of financial insulation
of the budget from the caprice of government ministers.
They’ve identified – and this is most disturbing – that the design of the bodies
doesn’t reach a modern interpretation of the Paris Principles,
the ECRI recommendations or the EU directives.
And Colm O’Cinneide put it more bluntly, just saying:
“We’re not delivering on requirements of the Belfast Agreement or the EU directives.
We’re in breach of our international obligations.”
Equally in terms of effectiveness I think the report is very damning.
In a very short sentence:
“We question, despite the limited evidence made available,
we question the ability of the Equality Authority to carry out its mandate.”
It’s also clear today that this new deal, this new start,
isn’t going to just be about institutional choices.
That if we don’t get the legislation right, we won’t be able to have useful institutions.
We can’t pursue new institutional choices without improved equality legislation.
And Eilish Barry, in her workshop, identified not only are the institutions now
not fit for purpose, but the equality legislation itself is not fit for purpose.
And she, with ease, set out nineteen different points where we need it to improve.
We need to broaden the scope of the legislation, so that it addresses
issues of influence and powerlessness, distribution of poverty
and recognition and status and standing.
We need to broaden the scope of it so that it covers not just employment and
services, but also the functions of the state.
And the state isn’t allowed hide behind the Section 14 exemption
in relation to its actions.
We need to broaden it in terms of a wider definition of discrimination,
that’s not just about less favourable treatment, that brings issues of
diversity and treating people different because they’re different.
And also issues of disadvantage and where people are disadvantaged
because of membership of a ground.
The workshop also went on to say, not just we need new legislation,
but in a society where there’s no right to collective bargaining,
where we can’t have gay marriage, where there are no socio-economic rights,
where there are large, well-resourced clubs –unnamed– that can exclude one
gender from their membership, we actually need a new constitution as well.
This agenda, I suppose, is coming forward, and one of the workshops
has focused on it, in a time of backlash. We’re constantly hit with the message
‘now is not the time for equality, there are more serious, more weighty matters.’
Or we’re hit with the message ‘equality is gone too far; we ran away with ourselves
during the boom time; we put too much money into it
and we had all this extraordinary political correctness imposed on us.’
We’ve got to challenge that backlash; it’s mythological;
it’s not about having gone too far. You can’t have gone too far when you have
12% of the population reporting discrimination over a two-year period.
It’s not about now not being the time. Now actually is the time for equality
if we want an effective response to economic recession.
And that’s a challenge in terms of backlash.
We have to shape a new public opinion that does value equality and human rights.
And Tanya Ward, in her workshop, talked about building a groundswell
of support for equality and human rights.
We do need to provide a means by which that public opinion gets effective
expression, and that it’s heard by the different parties in Dáil Eireann.
And we need to create the conditions for a stronger, more knowledgeable
and more effective political commitment to equality and human rights.
A central player in this will be civil society.
And one of the workshops did focus, I think importantly,
on strengthening civil society.
However, if you talk to groups in the community sector, they’re not
talking about new models of development, equality and human rights infrastructure
and a more equal society in the future.
They’re talking about survival.
They’re talking about the extraordinary attack that is happening in relation to
community sector organisations, posed in all sorts of ways.
But the reality is the independent, autonomous voice of the community sector
will be gone over the next two years if action is not taken.
And we do need to assert that autonomous voice.
We do need a sector that does determine what they themselves do,
and is not funding led.
We need a sector that’s committed to advocacy, that gives out the message
‘equality is important’.
We do need a new model of development.
We do need new statutory drivers for change in our society.
And for that, I think, we do need alliances.
We do need bodies like the Equality and Rights Alliance.
Bodies that are courageous in putting their head up above the parapet,
that are committed in terms of taking time out from the business of survival
to engage in this type of work.
And I think Joanna described it very powerfully at the start of the day.
The Equality and Rights Alliance has to be a critical voice.
It has to hold the government to account for equality and human rights.
It has to hold the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission
to account for what they do.
It has to challenge in action, compromise and complacency.
It has to be the whistleblower.
And that is a process that must not be stopped; it must continue and must grow,
or today is a wasted endeavour.
In conclusion I’ve been asked to say that today is not a conclusion.
So it’s not in conclusion!
But in terms of looking to the future and building on today,
the Equality and Rights Alliance is there; it’s growing.
It needs your support; it needs your involvement; it needs your engagement.
The next key task will be developing a charter on equality and human rights
during the next year.
And I think the discussions today, the inputs today, will be very important
in that regard and I think today is a very important launching point for that endeavour.
They’ve also asked me to say that they will be emailing
the speakers’ inputs to you over the next while.
And I think it’s very important to – cos I don’t think there’ll be anybody
to do it –
but to thank those involved, those in the Equality and Rights Alliance,
to thank those who’ve worked for today:
the planning committee, Maureen Bassett, Patricia Prendiville and Joanna McMinn
in particular.
And above all, I think, to thank the two drivers of the drivers for change:
Rachel Mullen and Edel Hackett, who I think have done a wonderful job.
Thank you very much.