THE PROPOSED new Human Rights and Equality Commission should ensure its services are accessible to vulnerable and marginalised people and its members should be appointed following a transparent and accountable procedure, according to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
In a submission to the working group set up to examine the formation of the new body, merging the former Irish Human Rights Commission and Equality Authority, the council says both bodies were under-resourced.
It also states that a disproportionate share of the former commission’s income from public funds was spent on the salary of its president and chief executive, to the detriment of its capacity to fund its programmatic work.
The Oireachtas grant to the commission for 2010 was €1,532,000, according to its annual report for 2010. It also states the salary of the commission’s president, Dr Maurice Manning, was €202,422.53.
Dr Manning has pointed out in the past that the salary of the president of the commission was set at that of a High Court judge, which was €243,080 before the cuts to judges’ pay. Dr Manning’s salary was reduced to reflect the cuts in salary of higher-paid public servants.
The annual report also states that the chief executive was on secondment from the Department of Foreign Affairs, and was paid €47,448 by the commission on top of his salary from the department. The commission paid the Department of Foreign Affairs €97,898 for his services, including PRSI. The annual report also states that the fees paid to the commission’s 14 commissioners amounted to €194,518.
The council states in its submission that human rights commissioners and members of the Board of the Equality Authority were appointed without an open, transparent and merit-based process.
Citing international standards, it urges appointments to be made following broad consultation, the wide advertising of vacancies, maximising the number of potential candidates from a wide range of societal groups and selecting members to serve in an individual capacity rather than as representative of organisations.
The new body should have the power to monitor and investigate alleged breaches of human rights or equality legislation, review legislation, educate and carry out research, according to the submission. These functions and powers should include the capacity to offer legal assistance to people making claims of breaches of their rights, it said.
It should also have power to institute proceedings in its own name in order to obtain declaratory relief, and should be able to monitor and investigate alleged human rights violations and allegations of discrimination itself, with the power to compel witnesses and administer oaths. It should also be able to conduct human rights and equality reviews of businesses and make enforceable recommendations, the council says.