Human rights chief began discussions with Social Democrats about running for party last September

The head of the State’s human rights watchdog, which is engaged in legal action against the Government over its treatment of asylum seekers, began discussions with the Social Democrats about running for the party last September.

Sinead Gibney, who recently announced that she would step down as chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) in March to run for the Social Democrats, has told the commission that she began “a series of informal discussions began with two members of the Social Democrats parliamentary party in September of last year”.

The commission has held two “extraordinary” meetings to discuss her announcement in the past fortnight. On Friday, it said it has agreed a series of “key governance arrangements” following questions from The Irish Times last week about reconciling her political role and her responsibilities to the Commission.

“The Chief Commissioner has stepped back from all spokesperson duties and public speaking engagements. The Chief Commissioner will recuse herself from any decisions relating to Commission’s legal work. The Commission has put in place a mechanism whereby the Commission can consider any potential conflicts of interest as they arise, in line with its existing policies,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.

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She said the Commission would not be issuing any further statement.

Ms Gibney said she could not comment while she remained in the post.

[ Human rights watchdog challenges Government over failure to provide supports for asylum seekers ]

Ms Gibney surprised the commission earlier this month when she announced she would resign, effective on March 15th, from the role to run for the Social Democrats, for whom she is expected to contest the European Parliament elections in June for the Dublin constituency.

She was previously a candidate for the Social Democrats in advance of the 2020 general election, but withdrew her candidacy to take up the role in the IHREC.

The move has attracted some unease in Government, which is defending a legal action initiated by the commission before Christmas. The case continued its early stages in the High Court last week.

The Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher said that the Commission’s “highly sensitive work” was “completely incompatible with allowing the Chief Commissioner to engage in overtly party-political activity, especially the seeking of a nomination to stand for election.”

Although civil servants are precluded from engaging in any political activity, the Commission spokeswoman said that while staff of the Commission are civil servants, the members of the Commission are not, though annual reports list the Chief Commissioner as a member of staff. According to the most recent annual report, for 2022, the salary of the Chief Commissioner was €158,541, an increase of nearly €14,000 over the previous year.

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