THE FUTURE of the Equality Authority is in doubt following the resignation of five of its board members, bringing to six the number who have left since the resignation of chief executive Niall Crowley last month.
The five who resigned are Dennis O’Flynn and Finola McDonnell of the employers’ body Ibec, Louise O’Donnell of the trade union Impact, David Joyce of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Frank Goodwin of the Carers’ Association.
Last month Therese Murphy of the National Women’s Council resigned following the resignation of Mr Crowley in protest at the 43 per cent cut in the authority’s budget and the insistence of the Minister for Justice on continuing decentralisation to a temporary office in Roscrea.
A spokesman for Mr Ahern told The Irish Timeslast night that the Minister was aware of the resignations and had contacted both Ibec and the Ictu seeking replacements for those who had resigned. He said Ibec had indicated they would be replaced.
Labour spokesman on justice Pat Rabbitte said the resignations “expose the vindictive nature of the crippling cuts arbitrarily imposed by the Minister for Justice”.
The six resignations mean that half the original board appointed in September 2007 has now resigned. Four more members were added to the board last year.
In her letter of resignation to the Minister for Justice, Ms O’Donnell said she had been forced to resign because promises by Mr Ahern that the authority would be able to carry out its core functions despite the 43 per cent cut had proved to be empty.
David Joyce said that the organisation’s business plan for 2009, as discussed at its recent board meeting, was “a pale imitation of the strong independent advocate for equality that the authority has been since its inception”.
Frank Goodwin said that the independence of the organisation had been compromised by the impact of the cutbacks.
Mr Joyce said he and other board members were very willing to engage with the Minister to discuss savings in the context of the continued viability of the organisation. “However, [the Minister’s] refusal to meet with the full board and the unilateral decisions taken by [his] department on these issues and failure to engage seriously with the management plan developed by the board before Christmas has sent a clear signal that this was not [his] intention,” he said.
He said he was particularly concerned at the impact all of this would have on the capacity of the authority’s legal section to carry out its important work. This included two inquiries Ictu had asked for: into the use of agency workers as a means of circumventing equality legislation; and into sheltered workshops.
Ms O’Donnell echoed this, pointing out that the authority’s revised legal budget for 2009 was already exhausted, which meant it was unable to take on any new cases and could struggle to sustain existing ones. The communications budget had been cut to 10 per cent of its 2008 level, with staffing almost halved and experienced staff replaced with new people who had no experience of equality issues.
There is no capacity for new research and some pending research projects will not now go ahead, she said.
She also expressed “great concern” at the direction in which chairwoman Angela Kerins was taking the organisation. “She has clearly indicated that she wishes to diminish the role of professional people within the organisation and to move the organisation away from its role as advocate for those who cannot represent themselves,” she said.
Mr Goodwin said he considered that the cut of 43 per cent in the body’s budget was “only marginally related to the public finances”. A cut of 8 to 12 per cent would have been understandable, he said. He also said that decentralisation would have serious consequences for the organisation and would reduce accessibility to it by members of the public.
He said the board was being forced to reconfigure its plans in a way that he considered compromised its independence. “The equality agenda is badly damaged. It seems to be deliberate,” he said.