THE IRISH Congress of Trade Unions has strongly criticised Government proposals to merge various equality bodies into a single agency and has sought an urgent meeting with the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, to discuss its concerns.
In a letter to the Minister, Ictu general secretary, David Begg, said any such merger would be "a retrograde step".
He said that it "could only be seen as an attempt to undermine the institutions that were established to promote and advance equality and protect citizens' rights".
"This is worrisome when it is evident that inequality, discrimination and exploitation are rising in our society," he said.
It emerged last month that the Government was proposing to merge the Equality Authority, the Irish Human Rights Commission and the office of the Data Protection Commissioner in a single agency.
The agencies are being consulted on the proposal and have been given until next month to respond.
The Irish Times reported that while no final decision would be taken before then, it has been signalled to the agencies that the merger was going to happen.
Meanwhile the Community Platform, a network of 27 national organisations committed to the achievement of social justice and equality, also expressed its concern yesterday at the merger proposals.
It said the plan, as well as being a possible threat to the future of the Combat Poverty Agency, "puts into question [ the Government's] commitment to equality, anti-poverty and justice at a time when it is critical to keep them at the core of policy development and implementation".
A spokesman for the Community Platform said that any weakening of the remit of these organisations "would be short-sighted and may have long-term consequences".
He said that the organisations played a critical role in supporting individuals, developing research and analysis, and in assisting with legal and policy implementation.
In his letter to Mr Ahern, Mr Begg said that the Towards 2016 social partnership agreement contained a commitment to review expenditure on the equality infrastructure in order to "decrease the incidence of discrimination and reduce the backlog of cases before the Equality Tribunal".
"We were particularly surprised therefore that news of the proposed merger came during the negotiations for the second phase of the agreement.
"We do not understand how a merging of such important bodies can take place without any reference to the social partners and before the high-level group on the implementation of the OECD report [ on public sector reform] has even met," he said.
