Ms Sin?ad Gibney:

That is perfect. I thank the Chair, and good afternoon everybody. I am chief commissioner for the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Ireland’s independent national human rights institution and equality body. I am joined today by Ms Alyson Kilpatrick, chief commissioner for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, and Ms Geraldine McGahey, chief commissioner for the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland. We are delighted to join the committee again following on from our joint appearance before it in September last year.

As the committee may recall, our three commissions have been mandated to oversee and report on the implications of Brexit for rights and equality on the island of Ireland. This we do specifically do under Article 2 of what is now the Windsor Framework, previously known as the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland.

In Article 2, the UK Government commits explicitly to ensuring that no diminution of certain rights, safeguards or equality of opportunity, as set out in the relevant chapter of the Good Friday Agreement, arises from its withdrawal from the EU. In recognition of the key role that EU anti-discrimination law has played in underpinning the provisions on equal treatment in the agreement, Article 2 includes a commitment to Northern Ireland law "keeping pace" with core protections against discrimination enshrined in EU law.

Article 2 specifies that this commitment be implemented through dedicated mechanisms, namely the two Northern Ireland commissions, who work together with ourselves in IHREC, specifically on rights and equalities issues that have an island of Ireland dimension. The Article 2 commitment, and our joint work to ensure it is upheld, is so important because it aims ultimately to protect the centrality of equality and human rights in the agreement, including its requirement that there be "an equivalent level of protection of human rights" in Ireland as in Northern Ireland. To support this work, we developed the research and joint policy recommendations we are here to discuss today. Led by our colleagues in the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland, on behalf of our three organisations, the aim of the research was to analyse the impact, or potential impact, of Brexit as regards the divergence of equality and human rights protections on the island of Ireland.

My fellow chief commissioners will explore these in greater detail but, at a top level, I will mention the key findings from the research While EU membership facilitated broad alignment of equality and human rights law across the island, some significant areas of divergence existed prior to Brexit, including in the areas of work-life balance, protection from age discrimination in access to goods, facilities and services, pay transparency reporting and gender reassignment. We can see where further divergence of rights loom post Brexit, in terms of proposed EU laws that stand to strengthen equality and human rights in Ireland in the near future but are not required to be implemented in Northern Ireland despite the Article 2 commitment. Such EU laws include, for example, the work-life balance directive, the European Accessibility Act and proposed legislation aiming to improve the gender balance among non-executive directors of listed companies.

In light of the findings, our commissions consider that long-term North-South equivalence of rights is important to ensure there is no diminution of rights in Northern Ireland and to ensure human rights and equality protections are subject to continual improvement. We have, therefore, made policy recommendations arising from the findings, aligned to our specific remits and mandates. On that basis, my organisation, IHREC, has joined the other commissions in making the following two specific recommendations: first, that North-South equivalence of rights and protections be ensured by Northern Irish law keeping pace with changes to equality and human rights law, arising as a result of EU laws introduced on or after 1 January 2021, that enhance protections. This should include rights introduced as a result of EU laws that do not amend or replace the protocol annex 1 directives; and, second, that the Irish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, and the UK Government work to enhance and harmonise equality and human rights protections on the island of Ireland, aligned to their respective remits, and make a clear commitment to working towards ensuring North-South equivalence of rights on the island of Ireland so as to strengthen protections. If implemented, these recommendations would help to avoid a divergence of rights that would not only see rights protections diminished in Northern Ireland, but would also run contrary to the vital commitment on equivalence set out in the agreement. I will now hand over to Ms McGahey.