Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 9, between lines 18 and 19 to insert the following:"8. Pursuant to the Good Friday Agreement, an international agreement of which this Government is a co-guarantor, the Irish Government will take steps to further strengthen the protection of human rights in its jurisdiction. The Government will bring forward measures to strengthen and underpin the constitutional protection of human rights. These proposals will draw on the European Convention on Human Rights and other international legal instruments in the field of human rights and the question of the incorporation of the ECHR will be further examined in this context. The measures brought forward would ensure at least an equivalent level of protection of human rights as will pertain in Northern Ireland. In addition, the Irish Government will—

(a) maintain and promote a Human Rights Commission with a mandate and remit equivalent to that within the North of Ireland, and

(b) continue to take further active steps to demonstrate its respect for the different traditions in the island of Ireland.".

Sinn Féin has a fundamental difficulty with this Bill. As the Minister will be aware, our concerns are that it undermines the Good Friday Agreement. When we from this State would ask those within unionism to support the Good Friday Agreement and implement it in full, particularly the human rights dimensions and to have a Human Rights Act in the North, the fact that we have amalgamated our Human Rights Commission with the Equality Authority does not put us on a very strong platform to lecture them about their responsibilities.

This amendment is aimed essentially at respecting the Good Friday Agreement and it is a challenge to the Bill. It lays out our fundamental and most serious concerns about this legislation. Rather than strengthening the State's human rights and equality framework, this is just about saving money. It is about describing or labelling important institutions that protect the human rights and equality of citizens of this State as quangos. We are told they have to be amalgamated because there are too many quangos, but that is deeply unfortunate.

A number of years ago, the Equality Authority's budget was slashed by 34%. That led to the resignation of the authority's widely respected chairman. There is a fear and concern that the protection of citizens' human rights has been undermined and that this Bill is unfortunately another step in that direction. Primarily, this amendment is about our concerns over the Good Friday Agreement. The Bill will undermine the Government when it seeks unionism to implement and meet its responsibilities.

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