Sir, – It is with regret, but not shock that I read Angela Kerins’s (Opinion, August 12th) justification of a possible merger between the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority.
Ms Kerins infers that the work of her organisation is being duplicated by many other statutory and non-statutory organisations, including the Irish Human Rights Commission and NGOs, and she states this as a rationale for the merger. The reality is that NGOs working to this end in Ireland are barely keeping their heads above the water at this stage, so severe have the cuts been to their budgets. This is particularly the case with the outspoken and challenging organisations.
It is clear to those of us who believe in, and work towards, tackling inequality, racism and discrimination in this country, that the past and current governments are using the recession as a handy excuse to cut away at this sector.
It makes sense – what government in its right mind would fund organisations which disagree with it, try to hold it to account and challenge its policy and laws? In past years I might have argued that the answer would be a Labour government. It is with a heavy heart that I now admit this is no longer the case. – Yours, etc,