Madam, - The resignation of Niall Crowley as CEO of the Equality Authority in protest at the 43 per cent cut in its budget coupled with decentralisation of its staff to Roscrea is a rare act of real principle. Mr Crowley has led the authority with great distinction and credibility since it came into being 10 years ago. He provided measured counterpoints to predictably shrill condemnations of "political correctness", reiterating the core principle of equality law that the only right it proscribed was the right to discriminate.
The issues raised in his letter of resignation about the viability of the Equality Authority must surely prompt those appointed to its board to consider their own positions. To fail to act in solidarity with the protest of the authority's CEO is to collude in the destruction of the body they were appointed to protect and to assist in the subverting of equality and non-discrimination law.
A bigger issue arising from Mr Crowley's resignation is whether it makes any sense (beyond the purely formal or oxymoronic) to talk about independent State-funded bodies. It would seem that those few such bodies that take their independence seriously can measure the State's appreciation of same in direct proportion to their budgetary cuts. This is not the mark of a real or mature democracy but of a mean autocracy that shows scant regard for the combined interests of marginalised people. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - We have reached a new low with the resignation of Niall Crowley, CEO of the Equality Authority, consequent on savage, non-negotiable cutbacks to that agency's budget.
Mr Crowley, with his staff, has worked tirelessly and courageously to tackle discrimination in all forms, including issues that have not previously been confronted by policy-makers.
Homophobic bullying in schools is one such example. There are many others.
The work of the Equality Authority has been held up internationally as a model for other countries to follow. Yet here in Ireland, its CEO, one of our finest public servants, has been forced to resign. There are many resignations that are overdue in this country and Mr Crowley's is not one of them.
The work of agencies like the Equality Authority, Combat Poverty, the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, and the Irish Human Rights Commission has never been needed more. Perhaps that is why they are being silenced. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - For 12 years the European Women's Foundation worked with women's groups all over the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. In essence, our work was to help create and strengthen democratic structures in those societies which had been damaged by totalitarian regimes for so long. We were always proud of the excellent Irish equality legislation, and in particular of the Equality Authority, and made it a central part of our workshops. We used case histories of the authority's work under each of the nine headings of discrimination to illustrate what could be done.
Without exception, all of the groups we worked with were impressed and inspired by Ireland's determination to stamp out discrimination in all its forms, in both the private and public sectors.
It is sad to hear from the former chief executive that the authority can no longer function after its budget was cut by almost half. Inexplicable too, that the Equality Authority should be singled out for such treatment. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - I hope that whoever takes over from Niall Crowley as CEO of the Equality Authority will ensure it takes a more balanced view in relation to gender, rather than the "one-eyed sexism" (that Newton Emerson recently described) that was displayed under Mr Crowley's leadership. - Yours, etc,