Cutting the minders and protectors
Posted by Maman Poulet on 14 Oct 2008 at 10:40 pm | Tagged as: Equality, Irish Politics, Recession
If you discriminate against people due to their nationality or race, gender, sexuality or disability, are violent towards your partner or commit other human rights violations, indeed if you are a government that does so, well this budget is good for you! The agencies which work in this area have been savaged today.
There were 41 mergers or scrappings of government funded agencies announced today and the mooted merger of the Equality Authority and the Human Rights Commission which I blogged about recently has been downgraded to a sharing of back services.
The Agency which worked in the area of promoting interculturalism and supporting victims of racist attacks the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) has been scrapped.
However in examining the Book of Estimates of which little will be heard about today one can see that there are huge cuts being made to organisations and funding streams in the area of Domestic Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, Disability, Equality and Human Rights.
Let’s take the NCCRI – It is supposed to be subsumed into the Office of the Minister for Integration – however that office has had it’s budget cut by 26%!!
The groups which work in the area of improving policy in the area of ageing, crisis pregnancy, women’s health, and cancer documentation are being taken into the Department of Health and the HSE. That’s the end of them and those issues then!
I’ve put together a quick list of some agencies and funding streams that have been cut in the Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform.
The Equality Authority’s budget has been cut by 43% and the Irish Human Rights Commission has been cut by 24% – but the National Disability Authority has only been cut by 2%. There is something very fishy going on there – a case of not rocking the boat and thus you don’t get cut??
A sharing of backservices by the Equality Authority and the Human Rights Commission could not possibly save that much money – there will be policy implications with these cuts, monitoring and protection of the rights of the most at risk in Irish society have been put at risk.
You might note below that the Equality Tribunal has had a budget increase which will be no use if the agencies which might support people to take cases under the Equal Status Act and Employment Equality Act have been cut to shreds.
B.2 – Human Rights Commission 24% Cut
E.1 – Equality Authority 43% Cut
E.2 – Equality Tribunal 15% Increase
E.3 – Grants to National Women’s Organisations 5% Cut
E.5 – Cosc – Domestic, Sexual AND Gender-Based Violence 18% Cut
E.6 – Equality Monitoring/Consultative Committee 8% Cut
E.7 – Gender Mainstreaming And Postive Action for Women …. 45% Cut
E.8 – Office of The Minister for Integration 26% CutF.1 – Status of People With Disabilities 5 % Cut
F.2 – National Disability Authority 2% Cut
F.3 – Disability Projects 10% Cut
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The rationale/ basis of these cuts needs to be challenged. Where do these percentages come from? Can the rackrent Minister tell us? Many of these bodies are being subsumed into the HSE/ Ministry of Health, which make Harney into a complete monster, if you ask me. Giving cancer assessment services *to* the HSE, is like the worst insult.
I would side with you: ff has targeted the ‘troublesome’ bodies, such as equality, etc. I don’t know about the NDA per se, but talking some time back to a HIV activist I was told how the funding approach had to comply with government thinking in many ways (ie don’t rock the boat, don’t try campaigning about anything about ’sex’ really). So, I’d be interested in knowing if there are cuts around orgs dealing with HIV (which seems to be another exemplar of an organisation that could be ‘constrained’ / policed by government. Yep, it seems fishy.
I’m outraged,feeling mugged as Joan Burton rightly put it, by these mean, small-minded cuts against the vulnerable and against minorities. The question remains – and I say this as someone who would never, ever vote for the Soldiers of Density – is how to formulate an alternative way of coping with our liquid modern economy, where moving fast and managing risk is crucial.
What’s more worrying about the NCCRI being scrapped is the fact that they used to systemtically monitor the reporting of racist abuse. Who’s going to be doing that now? Conor Lenihan??
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You know we can talk the talk, but can we walk the walk, why is it that when people are angry we cannot put that energy to good use. The cuts are there, they can be done because we are so un-united in our response and yet it is difficult to create a broad coalition that will attempt to work together even if all is not agreed.
In other words we need to take a party line –
So how then do we put all out thinking caps together and come up with a response??
A thought for the day – I need to feel empowered not disempowered by the powerful
Ms Angry – The talking and walking is currently being done very well by the Equality and Rights Alliance. You might have a look at their site – 60 NGO’s working together!
http://eracampaign.org/
Ta – admin – west of ireland so appreciate the info.
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Suzy
Not sure if you can answer these but I have a few questions about ERA
1: Given that this organisation was set up to oppose a merger of 5 organisations – does it have any other remit? Is it going to respond to issues regarding the NCCRI, the Centre for Early Childhood Development & Education, combat poverty agency, womens health council etc etc….?
2: Can individuals join or support ERA?
Hi Ian,
The ERA is meeting next week and I know that NCCRI is an issue of concern to many member organisations and Combat Poverty has been discussed on agendas of meetings.
Other than facebook I don’t know of anyway that individuals can support/join ERA but I know they are collecting money to defray their costs?
What I’m really suggesting is that the ERA group should try and build up grassroots support from individuals and as many NGOs as possible as this could build and add to their campaigns – I’ve contacted ERA through their website
Also – I trying to work out – was ERAs original remit very specific or would it have a role going forward
Hi there. Good article.
You are right to point out that organisations that ‘rock the boat’ will ultimately pay the price, while the orgs that play it safe, never criticise etc., will be left alone. However it goes further than that. The orgs that actually had the powers to HELP people have been hit hardest (Equality Authority, HRC). While, the ‘token’ orgs have been left unchanged. Compare the budget of the similarly sized Equality Authority to the National Disability Authority, and compare the difference in the budget cuts.
The NCCRI, Eq Auth, HRC have been under heavy attack by Dept Justice for several years now. Every method possible has been used to undermine and intimidate them. Review after review. Transferring staff. Board changes. The list is endless.
Be under no illusion, the slashing of budgets are to silence these organisations once and for all. Once an org’s budget is cut, it never really goes back up again. There will be no cost savings in reality, but it will be easy enough to fool most people into thinking that there are. For example, the Equality Authority now only has enough funding to cover staff wages – there will be no money for advice, outreach, sponsorship, representation, etc. Heck, they probably can’t pay for the electricity to turn on their PCs – not joking.
It has essentially been neutralised. The Dept will continue to bully the EA in particular to continue with their move to Roscrea. Down to an old house, in a big field in the middle of nowhere – it is not actually in Roscrea btw. And that will be the final nail in the coffin for that org.
Sean Aylward’s grubby fingerprints are all over these cuts. Ahern may be the minister for the Dept, but Aylward decides which org’s budget gets cut, and which does not.
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