Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Apr 2000

Vol. 517 No. 3

Written Answers. - Equality Proofing.

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

264 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the mechanism being put in place for the participation of groups representing lesbian and gay people in view of the commitment on equality proofing given in action 4 of section 3.12 of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness; the process, if any, for identifying those who will be consulted with respect to the grounds of religion; the decisions, if any, made on whether specific religions, organisations or individuals will be included; if so, if he will give details of these decisions; if provisions are being made to ensure the participation of those who have no religion in the process; the process for identifying those who will be consulted with respect to the ground of marital status; and the way in which he will facilitate the participation of those who have family status by virtue of being a primary resident carer. [9854/00]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness contains a commitment to the commencement this year of an initial learning phase of equality proofing, the core elements of which will reflect the recommendations contained in the Partnership 2000 Report on Equality Proofing and to the participation of the groups named in the Employment Equality Act, 1998 in that process.

The equality proofing report was developed from research commissioned by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to assist with the implementation of a commitment at paragraph 5.2 of Partnership 2000 to the strengthening of administrative procedures for equality proofing in the context of the national anti-poverty strategy. A Partnership 2000 working group comprising representatives of the social partners, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, the Equality Authority and the Combat Poverty Agency advised on the report. My Department presented the equality proofing report to Partnership 2000 in January.

The report advocates the introduction of a wide ranging system of equality proofing to assess the impact of policy on the nine categories identified in equality legislation, i.e. gender, race, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family status, religion, disability and membership of the Traveller community. In view of the complexity of equality proofing, the report recommends a "learning phase" during the period 2000-2003 where experience on equality proofing covering the nine categories identified in equality legislation would be developed in a number of specific policy areas.

The NESF have defined equality proofing as the development of an integrated and systematic approach to ensure that discriminated and marginalised groups are provided with the necessary means and resources to participate in society as equal citizens'. Participation by the relevant target groups in equality proofing is a vital part of the process enabling consultative inputs from categories who experience discrimination with the objective of taking their concerns into account in the development of policy. Participation by the relevant target groups can also compensate for inadequate data in relation to the categories concerned.

The mechanisms to give effect to commitments in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness have yet to be decided and will be worked out in consultation with all parties to the agreement. As indicated in the report, participation in the working group to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the equality proofing report will comprise relevant Government Departments, the Equality Authority, the Combat Poverty Agency, and the four pillars of social partnership. The interests of the individual groups will be represented by the social partners and by the Equality Authority. It is the intention that the categories named in the equality legislation will be facilitated in participating in the process of equality proofing the range of initiatives proposed in the report.