Vol. 450 No. 2
31 Dr. Woods asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the role of his Department regarding equality in Irish society; the key areas of inequality he hopes to tackle; and the five priorities he has for the period of this Government. [4893/95]
The creation of a Department of Equality and Law Reform has enabled the Government to profile equality policy in a priority format which might otherwise not be achieved.
Prior to the setting up of my Department the Minister for Labour had responsibility for gender equality issues relating to employment. This entailed not only formulation and implementation of anti-discrimination employment equality law but, in addition, promotion of equal opportunities policy.
My Department has taken over these responsibilities and, in line with Government policy, the role of the Department goes beyond gender equality to address a whole range of non-gender groups based on age, religion, sexual orientation, people with disability, race/nationality/ethnic origin and membership of the travelling community.
My intention is not only to improve employment equality legislation as regards gender but also to introduce statutory and non-statutory measures to expedite equal opportunity progress.
The equal status Bill, which I also intend to introduce, will deal with discrimination in non-employment areas on a number of grounds including gender, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race, colour, nationality and national or ethnic origin and membership of the travelling community. The areas in question include education, the provision of goods, services and facilities, and the disposal of accommodation or other premises. The legislation will help to promote equality and combat the exclusion of some groups of people from certain areas of Irish life.
A committee chaired by my Department monitors the implementation of the recommendations of the Second Commission on the Status of Women and a second annual progress report on this will be published in the first half of the year.
My Department also services a range of international activity on equality matters. In 1993, I established the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities. The commission's task is to advise the Government on practical measures necessary to ensure that people with a disability can participate, to the fullest extent of their potential, in economic, social and cultural life. The commission is also examining the current situation of people with a disability and the organisation and adequacy of existing services, both public and voluntary, to meet their needs. It will make recommendations setting out necessary changes to ensure that the needs of people with disabilities are met in a cohesive, comprehensive and cost-effective way.
Last year, the commission engaged in the most comprehensive consultative exercise with people with disabilities in the history of the State. It organised well-attended public meetings throughout the country at which people with disabilities, parents, carers, service-providers and other interested parties told the commission directly what changes they believed were needed to address what they saw as inequalities in relation to their situation. The commission has also received over 500 submission from the public.
The commission is due to present its report by the end of the year. I will give it very careful consideration with a view to bringing proposals to Government, based on its recommendations.
In July 1993, I established a Task Force on the Travelling Community. It is examining a large number of important and complex issues which impact on travellers in policy areas such as accommodation, health, housing and employment and training opportunities.
The task force is expected to finish its work within a matter of months. I look forward to receiving its final report and to considering, in consultation with ministerial colleagues, the views and recommendations contained therein with a view to removing some of the inequalities in treatment which travellers experience at present.
I am determined to improve access to the courts and to other means of resolving disputes, particularly in the family law area. In the 1995 Estimate for my Department I have secured significant funding for legal aid, marriage counselling and guidance services, and for mediation, all with a view to expansion and development in these areas. I have also recently initiated the Civil Legal Aid Bill which puts the scheme of civil legal aid and advice on a statutory footing and, in effect, guarantees the future of that scheme.
In addition, I am providing for other developments designed to improve access to justice. The Family Law Bill, 1994, for example, contains important new provisions in relation to jurisdiction of the courts. The Bill provides a comprehensive framework within which extensive remedies can be secured through the courts by spouses and children who face the consequences of marriage breakdown. The District and Circuit Courts will have new jurisdiction to order maintenance, by way of lump sums and secured payments and the District Court, for the first time, will have jurisdiction to make orders to protect a spouse from having the family home sold over his or her head. At present, that jurisdiction is confined to the higher courts.
While all Government Ministers share responsibilities for promoting employment equality policy in their respective Departments agencies, and areas of competence, I will continue to monitor and support any initiatives and developments that can achieve progress.
I am reluctant to attempt identifying priorities, since each area is a priority in its own right. There is also the consideration that any order of priorities requires constant review and adjustment, in the light of changing circumstances, particularly where legislation is involved.
I prefer to adopt a pragmatic approach by maintaining pressure on all fronts, with a view to making whatever progress is feasible at any given time.
Since the Minister said he was prepared to adopt a pragmatic approach but is slow to identify priorities, would he agree that the latter objective, that of identifying priorities, is particularly important, which was why I asked whether he would list even his top five priorities, for instance, for achievement within this year? Following on the allocation of resources in the budget, the question of priority arises, which is why it is important that some priorities be clearly specified; otherwise, the Minister's work will be very high in aspiration, as it is, but low in achievement since he has said he is dependent on other Ministers, who have their respective responsibilities, to carry out this work. Would he agree that is where the great danger obtains? Will he reexamine the overall position, formulate a mission statement, present it to the House, specifying a number of priorities which he failed to do in his reply? I ask him not to await reports before insisting on action of a practical kind. For instance, the Minister said he will await recommendations on people with disabilities, travellers and other groups. Will he set out the priorities for achievement by the Government as a whole, otherwise many of his excellent aspirations will not be achieved?
The Deputy is suggesting that I should in some way organise the affairs and responsibilities of my Department on the lines of some type of PR election with a No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 priority, but that is not how I see my responsibility. I regard the range of policy objectives allocated to my Department by the Government as matters of major importance and I do not see it as part or parcel of my role to prioritise people with disabilities over women or discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, colour or membership of the travelling community over another area. Those are important key priorities and they are being actively worked on and progressed in my Department. I assure the Deputy that it is not my intention to await reports before taking action in important fields and I have given good indication that I am doing that in a number of areas. I informed the House, for example, that employment equality legislation is at an advanced stage of preparation without waiting for the production of the report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities and so on. That legislation will protect and advance the interests of people with disabilities as well as the other disadvantaged groups I mentioned in my reply. Likewise, the equal status Bill is not awaiting the outcome of any report, it is progressing with all possible speed. Those very important priority areas have the support of the Government and it is my intention to advance them on a broad front as quickly as possible. Much has been achieved, but much remains to be done and I look forward to the co-operation of my colleagues in Opposition in securing those ends.
The danger is that we will have a great deal of law and a dearth of practical progress and that is why I suggest setting priorities. As I deal with people on a regular basis in the Eastern Health Board, I am aware there is a dearth of resources for basic facilities and equipment, such as wheelchairs, commodes and other services and facilities. I accept there may be an increased demand for them, but unless we deal with some of those matters as a priority and ensure that people with disabilities get practical assistance, the excellent work being undertaken by the Minister in the area of law reform will be of no immediate value to people on the ground and that is why I ask the Minister to ensure that he and his fellow Ministers give priority to those areas.
The question of resources in the Eastern Health Board or any other health board area is a matter for the health board concerned and the Minister for Health. I do not wish to comment on any individual case that may have come to Deputy Woods's notice in connection with the provision of certain equipment. I am involved in a much broader, stronger operation than that, to provide on a broad front for all cases of discrimination covering the wide range of areas that involve people with disabilities, women and other disadvantaged groups and to secure their position by way of legislation that will give them rights in connection with employment, promotional prospects, supply of goods and services and so on. That is a key responsibility of my Department. The question of resources for individual health boards is another matter, but I intend to give rights to people in those categories by way of guaranteed legislation written into the Statute Book.
I wish to ask a final supplementary question.
The time allocated for questions nominated for priority is well exhausted, Deputy. We are ten minutes behind time and we must proceed to other questions. I will take the final priority Question No. 33 in the category of other questions.
The problem in the Eastern Health Board is a major one, not one that arises on a once off basis. If the Minister checks with his backbenchers he will find that is the position.
I do not doubt that.
