THE Irish section of the National Union of Journalists is being asked to take responsibility for its own finances in a move to give it greater autonomy from its London headquarters.
The NUJ, which has over 2,000 members in Ireland, is part of the British based union which organises journalists and other media workers in Britain and Ireland and also has branches in Paris and Brussels.
The proposal for greater Irish autonomy has come from the general secretary of the union, Mr John Foster, who has sent a draft proposal to the Irish secretary of the NUJ, Mr Eoin Ronayne. The move comes after Mr Foster failed to push through a proposal to reduce staff numbers in Ireland as part of a cost cutting exercise.
Mr Foster, who was in Ireland yesterday for discussions, is now proposing that Irish officials look after finances collected from members in Ireland and that a contribution be made towards the running of the headquarters in London.
The proposal is unusual because there has been no move from the membership in Ireland for such a change.
In recent years in an attempt to give the Irish membership greater freedom, the NUJ's Irish council has been elevated to an executive, with the power to call industrial action without having to consult London. It also holds its own annual conference.
One of the most controversial suggestions being made by Mr Foster is that the Northern Ireland membership would be included in the Irish membership, a proposal that might not meet with widespread support in the North.
While some members of the NUJ view greater independence from London as a good thing, the degree of autonomy already negotiated, seems to have satisfied the majority.
One fear is that the move being suggested by Mr Foster will inevitably lead to full independence of the NUJ in Ireland, which could leave the union too small to operate independently and force it to merge with a larger general union.
There is another consideration in that, at a time when the media are increasingly global, it might not be in the best interests of either British or Irish journalists to be independent of each other.