Dan Boyle (Green Party)

A problem I have with this evening's compendium Private Members' motion tabled by the Independent Members of the House is that seven items are directly referred to in it but, with only eight minutes in my time slot, it is difficult to divide my time accordingly. However, I will make a valiant attempt to do so.

I am on record in this House as having expressed concern and unhappiness about decisions relating to the many issues covered in this motion. In the nature of politics and Government, one makes one's case and accepts decisions that are arrived at collectively. I will respond to many of the points raised in the motion.

My first point is that an impression has been created that the only decisions relating to rights-based agencies have been those that have affected decisions to amalgamate or cut the number of State agencies. The largest such amalgamation proposed in events last year was the move to have greater co-ordination between the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority, each of which is a large organisation in its own right and each of which has an individual budget. That move was the most telling of Government decisions in that regard.

Nevertheless, the type of thinking that prevailed then and continues to prevail in the system was that concerning the Equality Authority and the Human Rights Commission. Arguments were made as to whether one body should be in existence in place of both. Arguments were raised against that idea and instead of a new single entity, it was decided that the budgets of both, in terms of public expenditure that exists now, would be cut.

In the case of the Equality Authority that has led to the subsequent resignation of its chief executive officer and five members of its board, both actions are to be regretted because the Equality Authority has done and will continue to do excellent work in this regard. In announcing the resignations of both the directors and the chief executive, concern about the authority being able to operate within a severely restricted budget, of at least one third in terms of cuts, was publicly announced by all concerned. The gap between how the Equality Authority can operate effectively and how it is being allowed to operate is something that can be and is still being addressed.

In having a continuing two-organisation policy towards the Equality Authority and Human Rights Commissions, it was considered that one area of savings could be made in terms of a shared secretariat. I have said in this House on many occasions in the past that the idea of a shared secretariat is undermined by attempts to move most of the operations of the Equality Authority to Roscrea, some 80 miles away. The resignation of the CEO and the board members is leading to ongoing consideration of this policy element. I am convinced that decisions can be and will be made in this regard.

In regard to the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, the programme for Government introduced, at the suggestion of the Green Party as one of the negotiators, an office of a Minister of State with responsibility for integration. It was considered in the new climate prevailing that some bodies have a natural life and can be operated in a different format. As one who is chair of a migrant organisation in Cork, I believe this can be applied to the National Committee on Racism and Interculturalism. It has served a purpose and done its work well but it could not be seen as an institution that would have an ongoing life for ever and ever. There are times such decisions need to be made about State bodies.

The point concerning the monitoring of human rights protocols attached to the external trade agreement between Israel and the EU is probably one on which I would agree with Senator Norris, but it must be acknowledged that the Irish Government's position in criticising the recent appalling behaviour of the Israeli Government and demanding international action was among the best in the European Union.