Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It feels strange to be sitting on the other side of the table. I will not say very much as I will leave most of the talking to my colleagues, Dr. Mary Rogan and Ms Mary Power from FLAC and the PILA. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to address fellow committee members in a different capacity on the research project in which Dr. Rogan, Ms Power and I have been involved in the past year. Dr. Rogan will describe the project in detail. It is entitled, Changing Ireland, Changing Law, and looks at public interest litigation and the way in which legal cases have achieved social change in Ireland. This is the final stage of the process.

We were very privileged to have a range of speakers at the seminars we ran. We heard from litigants who had taken cases and from lawyers and academic experts. One of the litigants from whom we heard was Dr. Micheline Sheehy-Skeffington, who is in the Visitors Gallery. She spoke to us earlier this year about her experience in suing NUI Galway over gender discrimination in promotion. Professor Mark Bell from Trinity College Dublin is also in the Visitors Gallery. He spoke to us about the use of public interest litigation in furthering LGBT rights. I also acknowledge Ms Noeline Blackwell, director of FLAC, who is also present. The PILA, the public interest law alliance of FLAC, was our lead partner in the research project which we considered would be of particular interest to Oireachtas Members, particularly to members of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, because we were looking at the question of access to justice and how we could support and strengthen public interest litigation to ensure litigants in cases who were seeking to achieve social change would be supported.

Dr. Rogan is head of law at the Dublin Institute of Technology and will speak in a little more detail about the project.