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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
54 February 2016
T
he Government would be happy to go to the
polls wrapped in the mantle of a ‘Yes Equal-
ity’ Government. The Government delivered
on the marriage equality referendum. We had
the referendum to beat all referendums and
same sex couples can now get married, their relation-
ships affirmed as equal. This was a remarkable
achievement. Eamon Gilmore called it “the civil rights
issue of this generation”. However, is it enough for Fine
Gael and Labour to don the mantle of a ‘Yes Equality’
Government in search of a vote?
Aodhán O’Riordáin, Minister of State at the Depart-
ment of Justice and Equality, tried to keep the feeling
warm. A month after the referendum he declared the
report of the working group on direct provision for asy-
lum-seekers, set up by his Department, as another “Yes
Equality moment”. This sorely diminished the mantle
and, indeed, any correlative right to don the mantle.
The recommendations of this report were far from any
ideal for equality and human rights. The report essen-
tially permitted continuation of this inhumane direct
provision system for receiving and accommodating asy-
lum-seekers. Only those asylum-seekers serving five
years or more in the system were to be
released. The mantle has since been
further sullied as even the limited
recommendations have not been
implemented.
Direct Provision is not the only seri-
ous human rights violation that this
Government has countenanced. RTE’s
Prime Time exposed the gross abuse
of people with disabilities living in
Áras Attracta. Political disapproval
flowed yet action was absent. The
Government ignored the 2011 Congregated Settings
Report that recommended that “people with disabilities
living in congregated settings move to community set-
tings within seven years”. It ignored the costed
submission of the HSE, made in 2015, seeking some
€250m to implement the report.
Whenever it came to money, this Government evinced
little interest in donning the ‘Yes Equality’ mantle. The
treatment of the Traveller community reflected a rejec-
tion of equality and human rights by the Government.
There was an extraordinary disinvestment in the Trav-
eller community. The education budget specifically
allocated to Travellers was reduced by 87% and the
accommodation budget by 85%. This happened despite
significant educational inequality for Travellers and the
scandalous, often dangerous, living conditions they
continue to endure. The tragedy of ten lives lost in the
fire on the temporary Traveller halting site in Carrick-
mines was not unpredictable. Even tragedy, however,
failed to secure any reinvestment in the Traveller
community.
People with disability fared badly. Their prospects
for independent living receded. The Mobility Allowance
and the Motorised Transport Grant for people with dis-
abilities were cut. The Minister for Health and Children
axed these schemes in 2013 because criteria governing
the schemes were found to be in breach of the Equal
Status Act in a case heard by the Equality Tribunal in
2008. The Minister did not have to axe the scheme. He
promised the issues would be resolved quickly but
some people with disabilities remain on the schemes
found to be discriminatory and no new scheme has
been provided for the many others now precluded from
access to these vital supports. The schemes were cen-
tral to participation in society and to ensuring people
do not become trapped in their own homes.
Lone parents didn’t fine it was a ‘Yes Equality’ Gov-
ernment. Changes to the One Parent Family Payment
caused stress and hardship for many families, that are
much more likely to experience poverty and social
exclusion than others. 63% of them experienced
enforced deprivation in 2013. The Government effec-
tively ended access to the One Parent Family Payment
in 2015 for lone parents whose youngest child is seven
or over. The financial losses for working lone parents
are so significant that they are likely to give up part-
time employment.
Trans people, on the other hand, did get some of the
‘Yes Equality’ treatment. Legislation secured legal rec-
ognition for them in the gender with which they
identified. This was on foot of legal action taken by
Lydia Foy to assert her rights. The legislation, despite
its failure to respond adequately to young Trans people,
compares well with the most progressive approaches
to the rights of Trans people at a European level.
The legislation to ensure 30% of all candidates of
each party in national elections are women is progres-
sive. There was a touch of the ‘Yes Equality’ about this.
It did not cost money but it is clear that it is causing
some significant pain in male bastions. The same com-
mitment did not extend to private-sector boardrooms,
despite proposals from the European Commission for
a 40% quota of the under-represented gender on cor-
porate boards. And that ‘Yes Equality’ feeling drained
away with the failure so far to address women’s
Only those
asylum-seekers
serving five
years or more in
the system were
to be released
Maybe Equality
'Yes Equality' rings hollow for asylum-
seekers, people with disabilities,
Travellers, or lone parents
by Niall Crowley
GENERAL DELIVERY
February 2016 55
reproductive rights by repealing the iniquitous Eight
Amendment to the Constitution that has put women’s
lives and health at risk.
This Government did inject some of the resources cut
by the previous Government from the budgets of the
Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commis-
sion back into the equality and human rights
infrastructure. Nothing, however, is ever
straightforward when it comes to this
Government and equality and
human rights. The additional
resources were only made
available to a new, merged
body, the Irish Human
Rights and Equality Com-
mission. It seems this
potential ‘Yes Equality’
moment was actually
more about sweeping
equality under the
human rights rug.
Equality and human
rights reflect two very dif
-
ferent traditions. Equality is
focused on achieving outcomes
of equality for the different groups
that make up society. Human rights are
about minimum standards to be enjoyed by all
individuals in society. In merging the two traditions
there is much talk of the logic of equality being a human
right. When equality is limited to being a human right
it is confined to formal equality. Formal equality is only
about equal treatment and non-discrimination. Not
about outcomes.
A merger of the Equality Authority and the Irish
Human Rights Commission, based on such an under-
standing of the relationship between human rights and
equality, diminishes any capacity for or drive towards
the more substantive forms of equality that so many
groups in our society aspire to and that our society so
badly needs. This merger could yet be seen as a
damaging move to temper ambitions for equality and
diminish activism for a more equal society as it gets
caught up in the more formal and expert monitoring and
reporting arrangements so central to the human rights
tradition.
Another opportunity for‘ Yes Equality’ is the statutory
duty imposed since 2014 on public bodies to eliminate
discrimination, promote equality of oppor-
tunity, and protect human rights. This
is more sleight of hand. Civil soci-
ety has long campaigned for
such a duty for the public
sector. It was recom
-
mended on a number of
occasions by the former
Equality Authority.
Public bodies must now
establish the equality
and human rights issues
relevant to their remit
and identify their plans,
policies and procedures to
address these issues in their
strategic planning.
A real ‘Yes Equality’ Govern-
ment would have dynamically driven
the implementation of this duty. But
nothing has happened. No Government Depart-
ment or Government agency has taken action on foot
of it. In fact, they don’t even seem to know it has been
put in place. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Com-
mission has yet to make it an issue, watching from the
sidelines as it is breached again and again.
This has been a ‘Maybe to Inequality’ Government.
It has had its moments, but those moments have not
served to deepen ambition for more equality and
human rights, merely to disguise the lack of such ambi-
tion, indeed the failure to understand a real equality
agenda. This Government would have to have the great-
est of cheek to campaign for re-election cloaked in any
form of a ‘Yes Equality’ mantle.
The statutory duty
imposed since 2014 on
public bodies to eliminate
discrimination, promote
equality of opportunity,
and protect human rights
is being ignored
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