Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

For a number of reasons I am advocating that the House should oppose this Bill when the question is put tomorrow night. It is clear that the Bill is focused on establishing further committees and creating an extremely cumbersome bureaucracy. The enactment of this legislation could lead to progress in the area of equality becoming bogged down for many years. In essence, the Bill represents a box-ticking exercise rather than an imposition of a robust duty of care on public bodies in the context of how - by means of their strategic plans - they meet the challenges they face in their day-to-day operations. Furthermore, there are a number of technical difficulties with the Bill. For example, it contains many measures which are obviously related to the Employment Equality Acts but it makes no reference to or cites those Acts. That is more than a drafting error, it constitutes a real problem. If a Bill is not related to other legislative measures, it will be open to immediate challenge when enacted.

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