Madam, - On February 5th you published an article by Niall Crowley, chief executive of the Equality Authority, in which he outlined the authority's programme for the coming year. Having read this with attention, I wrote an article - "What does an 'equal' society really mean?" (Opinion & Analysis, February 27th) - in which I asked Mr Crowley to explain several aspects of the programme he had set out.
My questions touched matters of general public concern. Mr Crowley is, I take it, a public servant. His silence hitherto smacks either of a poor sense of public relations or of an arrogance unbecoming a public servant in a democracy. My questions, arising from Mr Crowley's statements in his article, were briefly as follows.
Could we have in one sentence a description of the kind of society which the Equality Authority is aiming to construct? Is it a society in which, at all levels in the educational system, and at all levels of status and income in all occupations, males and females will be equally present and all minority groups (disabled people, Protestants, African Irish, Travellers, etc) will be represented in proportion to their numbers?
If this is the case, what if not enough females, males or members of minority groups want to fill their required quotas in some of the categories - become science students, say, or TDs, or nurses, or top managers? Will the authority let them live as they wish, or will it engage in social engineering and brainwashing to make them do what, left alone, they would not choose to do - in order that the authority's programme will be completed?
Again, was Mr Crowley serious when he suggested that adults should treat children as adults? Was he also suggesting that two persons of the same sex choosing to live together lovingly should have "rights, responsibilities and benefits" equal to those of a married couple, and, if so, why? Finally, Mr Crowley is aware that no human society in history has organised itself as the authority plans to organise Irish society. Was a request to be so organised expressed by the Irish people? And if it should emerge that organising us in this manner was causing material or moral damage to Irish society, would Mr Crowley desist from his efforts or persist? Yours, etc,
DESMOND FENNELL,
Anguillara,
Rome,
Italy.