THE FORMER chief executive of the Equality Authority last night welcomed the statement from the leader of the Green Party that the changes to the Equality Authority had been reversed. John Gormley announced this at the party’s conference last night.
Niall Crowley resigned from the Equality Authority last December following the refusal of the Minister for Justice to halt the decentralisation of the office to Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and to restore some of the funding so that the cut to its budget would be 32 rather than 43 per cent.
This had been sought in a meeting involving the Minister, Mr Crowley and chairwoman of the authority Angela Kerins.
In his speech last night, Mr Gormley said: “One of the issues that has caused deep concern and upset in our party has been the changes to the Equality Authority. Those changes resulted in the resignation of Niall Crowley, a man of integrity and principle, and that was very regrettable.
“At our membership meetings I undertook to have those changes reversed. And I’m very glad to report to you this evening that we have succeeded in our mission. The planned further decentralisation of staff has been stopped and a further review of funding for the Equality Authority undertaken to ensure that it can do its work effectively.
“I want to thank the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice for their co-operation in this matter. It shows that we can work out those difficulties in Government.”
Mr Crowley said he welcomed this announcement, adding: “I hope this will be implemented in good faith. It will need to start with restoring to the Equality Authority staff that were forced to leave for other parts of the Civil Service, and restore its independence that has been diminished.”
It is understood that four development officers who were due to be decentralised to Roscrea are now not going. They were involved in best policy development in areas such as education and health.
These development officers were recruited from outside the Civil Service, and their initial contracts did not refer to decentralisation, but this condition was added later. It is understood that in the past two weeks they have been informed they will not have to move.
However, staff in the authority are not aware of additional funding being on the way.