The Equality and Rights Alliance (ERA), a coalition of 80 NGOs working in the human rights area, has lodged a legal complaint with the European Commission stating that Ireland is in breach of EU equality law.
The complaint relates to the 43 per cent cut in funding to the Equality Authority last year, which led to the resignation of its chief executive, Niall Crowley, claims that Ireland is in breach of the Equality Directive by no longer having an effective and independent designated body to oversee anti-discrimination policy. In Ireland that body is the Equality Authority.
The complaint is supported by David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, in a letter outlining the impact of weakened equality infrastructure on workers. Labour, Fine Gael and Independent MEPs have also endorsed a petition along similar lines to the European Parliament.
The ERA is claiming that the funding cut, combined with decentralisation, was so severe that it undermined the independence of the designated body. It also claims that the Irish Government disproportionally selected the Equality Authority for cuts, compared with other departmental cuts.
It claims that the cuts fly in the face of European Commission recommendations on funding and the dissemination of information about rights, and that they mean the directive cannot be fully effective as a result.
If the complaint is upheld by the Commission, the matter will be referred to the European Court of Justice, which may instigate an infringement action against the Government for breach of the directives.
The whole process could take two to three years, according to a spokeswoman for the ERA. She said that the group would be providing supplementary information, including the results of research now being carried out to establish the impact of the cuts.
The complaint coincides with the first anniversary of the setting up of the ERA in response to the then threatened merger of a number of human rights organisations. This proposal was later dropped, and the cuts, including a cut of 24 per cent in the funding of the Human Rights Commission, introduced instead.
The chair of the ERA, Joanna McMinn, said that monitoring showed that in the first months of 2009, the number of legal cases failing at the Equality Tribunal far outweighed those which succeeded. The Equality Authority provides advice and support to people taking complaints to the tribunal.