Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, I would like to begin by thanking Sunniva McDonagh, as Acting Chairperson of the Equality Authority and of the Human Rights Commission, and Chief Executive Renee Dempsey for their kind invitation to attend and deliver the opening address to you here today, which I was very pleased to accept.
I want to take this opportunity also to express my appreciation to the able and dedicated team in the Equality Mainstreaming Unit whose work over the past year has culminated in today’s conference.
Over the past 7 years, the Equality Mainstreaming Unit, which is part-funded by the European Social Fund, has worked to put in place measures to improve access to and participation in the labour market for members of vulnerable groups. These are specific groups that are experiencing barriers to their participation and employment, including those created by gender inequality and wider inequalities. This is an excellent illustration of the developmental work carried out by the Equality Authority since its establishment. Although perhaps the most low-key aspect of its functions this work has driven some profound changes and advances. For example, organisational practice in the further and adult education sectors has changed fundamentally as a result of the Equality Authority's intervention. FETAC's Quality Assurance policy and guidelines for further education and training providers now obliges such providers to deliver their programmes in a manner that accommodates diversity, combats discrimination and promotes equality of opportunity. These guidelines ensure that equality is built-in from the outset. This is an important role for the Equality Authority which has proven its worth. It is a role which we in Government are keen to enhance in the legislation to underpin the new Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, which in due course will replace the Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority.
I would like to take a few moments to set out why this merger is a good idea in principle and a workable idea in practice. Equality and human rights are basic dimensions of human dignity. The issues that arise for examination are often similar. An integrated body that unifies equality and human-rights agendas will be able to draw on a variety of experts to address these issues. It also has the potential to exert a greater influence on the shaping of policies at the local and national level. It is of ongoing concern that, as indicated by last year’s Eurobarometer survey on discrimination, the proportion of Irish respondents who know their rights should they fall victim to discrimination is still only 44%, while only 19% would report their case to the Equality Authority. A single institution will find it easier to establish a footprint at local level and a higher profile nationally.
From the citizen’s point of view, it matters little whether it is their human rights, or equality rights, that have been infringed. The bottom line for the person seeking assistance is whether the necessary advice and assistance is available in an accessible and coherent way. Clearly, the merged body must be independent, adequately funded, and have adequate powers and functions to do its equality and human-rights work and to provide this necessary advice and assistance to our people. The new Commission will have a broad mandate based on universal human-rights standards, which includes the duty to promote and protect equality and all human rights. It will be independent from government, and this independence will be guaranteed by statute. The membership of its board is pluralistic and, as I am sure you will agree, the calibre of the commissioners-designate is profoundly impressive. In addition to its powers to advise government from its independent perspective, to screen legislation, and raise human-rights and equality awareness in society, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission will have a rationally devised set of powers of investigation and enforcement.
My essential point is this. The new Commission can become the frontline body for turning the State’s commitment to equality and human rights into a reality at national and local level. It can also continue to develop a sense of what good practice requires. These steps will help to advance the objective of ensuring that each citizen can take part on equal terms in the culture of the community, be a fully-fledged citizen in the moral, social and economic environment, and live a flourishing life free from degradation and disparagement.
I was delighted therefore, to see that the programme for today’s conference highlighted the Government’s plans to introduce, in the legislation to establish the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, a statutory positive duty on public bodies to actively promote equality. The examples that will be presented later today clearly illustrate the capacity that exists in the public service to act as leaders in bringing about fundamental change towards a society which values each of its citizens and enables their contributions to the labour force.
The model of positive duty we are introducing is not the model found elsewhere. Its success will depend on the ability of the IHREC to harness that capacity and good will that exists in the public sector. It will require use of soft, persuasive power, rather than exercise of formal, legal power. As active engagement with and by public sector managers will be required in developing positive partnerships, neither will we see the undertaking of a formal box-ticking exercise.
In common with most of its clients over the past few years, the Equality Mainstreaming Unit has not had a particularly easy time. The nature of the problems the Unit was set up to help overcome has changed profoundly since 2007. At that time, against a background of almost full employment, the concerns were to include those on the margins of society and to make the working environment and vocational and further education and training opportunities more inclusive of our increasingly diverse population. Those concerns remain, although since 2008 the challenge for the EMU has been to keep a focus on the needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups while working to address the equality challenges faced by high unemployment.
There are encouraging signs that our efforts to stabilise our wider economy are having a positive impact and that the tide is turning. However, high youth unemployment, high long-term unemployment, a contracting economy and concerns that the gap between the wealthiest and poorest in Irish society may be widening are challenges that we are all familiar with and whose resolution requires continued investment of effort and creativity.
All this means that we are in a period during which particularly high demands are being made of the vocational education and the further education and training sectors, along with high expectations of what they can deliver.
It is crucial that the training provided will prepare successful participants for those employment opportunities that do exist right now. That is a given, if not an issue for today. However, it is essential that the training is designed in such a way that it is accessible to the widest possible group of candidates, and delivered in such a way that the widest possible group of participants can master and apply the knowledge and skills being taught. Apart from technical and administrative skills, it is highly important that the training provided will also develop the personal and communication skills needed to contribute to a working environment which respects diversity and promotes equal treatment. Increasingly we have expectations that vocational training will also instil in its participants knowledge of one's own rights and those of others, and confidence to proactively assert those rights and pursue remedies where rights are being infringed. This may be but one factor on the road to recovery, but I feel it is an extremely important one.
Training which helps more people to make the leap to be successful entrepreneurs, thus generating further employment opportunities for others, is another factor. We're making it easier for new businesses to start up. It makes sense to cast the net wide and ensure that entrepreneurship supports can be availed of by people from all sectors of society who have a viable business idea. We also want those new businesses to offer sustainable employment and quality work - work that respects the dignity and talents of their workforces and both acknowledges and serves the diversity of their client base.
The Equality Authority has been to the forefront in identifying and supporting modern and effective business practice in this area. Equality mainstreaming just means that as part of an organisation's usual decision-making process, it takes into account the impact of plans, strategies and procedures on staff and clients across the whole spectrum of the nine equality grounds. I find it is frequently useful to step behind the definition and the theory and look at what this means in practice.
Analysis of the incidence and impact of equality policies in Irish workplaces has been carried out by the ESRI for the Equality Authority. Drawing on data from the 2009 National Workplace Survey, some 84% of employees were now working in an organisation with a formal equality policy, which is good news. As also is the finding that equality policies have a modest but statistically significant impact on reducing work pressure and work–life conflict. It finds that having a formal
equality policy impacts positively on employees' perceptions of workplace fairness, on workers' well-being and on organisational outcomes.
I understand that these benefits will be amply illustrated by the presentations later today. You will hear from civil society advocacy groups, professional bodies, employer representative groups and trades unions, who will talk to you about actions taken in the further education and training, agriculture and hospitality sectors and actions relevant to employment generally. The sheer variety of sectors and stakeholders represented provide confirmation, if such were needed, that equality is of relevance to all and a shared responsibility. Those who have contributed to and will be presenting good practices in equality mainstreaming here today are to be congratulated.
I am turning now to address those of you in the audience who have yet to look at your mainstream business practices and planning under an equality lens, and encourage you to do so.
The facts are these.
As the ESRI study I have just quoted illustrates, equality-compliance matters. Each vocational education provider, each labour market provider and each employer, however small, who works according to sound non-discriminatory practices, makes a difference and what they do matters.
However, every provider and employer who does not comply with non-discriminatory work practices also has an impact.
It all makes a difference. If as a labour market provider you have not thought to ensure that the services you offer are accessible on an equal basis, the chances are that they are not. Similarly, if as an employer you have not thought through your work practices and considered how they might impact negatively on, say, employees with young families or caring responsibilities, of different ethnicities or religious beliefs, of different sexual orientations, or who have or develop a disability which affects their working life, you will be unprepared when such a situation arises. As inevitably it will - these situations are part of normal life. This is one area in which we can clearly say that an ounce of prevention is worth any amount of the cure.
The resources showcased today are there to be used for exactly this purpose - to help you to think ahead and either prevent or mitigate the problems that can arise.
There is a wealth of hard-won experience and plain common sense in the practical examples that will be presented to you today as good practice. I recommend each of you to look closely at what has worked for others, particularly those in similar situations to yourself. Envisage how your organisation would benefit from these initiatives, which have been tried and tested. Seek out more information - the contacts and tools that you need to make a start are all here today. I see in the programme that lunch is specifically flagged as a networking opportunity. We pride ourselves in Ireland for our ability to network successfully. I challenge you to demonstrate that ability and bring back those contacts and tools with you to apply them to your own working environment, and make real for you the opportunities opened up by equality mainstreaming.
After these words of encouragement, I would like to thank you for your attention and wish you all success with your deliberations today.
Thank you.