The 2011 Equality Authority Final Annual Report was launched by Justice and Equality Minister Alan Shatter TD at the College of Physicians, Dublin 2 on Monday July 9th 2012. Full press release here
The Minister stated that he had long been a vocal critic of the treatment of both the Authority and the Human Rights Commission by the previous Government. He added that "the Constitution of Ireland, provides that all the citizens of this State shall be held equal before the law and requires the State in its laws to respect and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate the rights of the citizen. The further elaboration of these rights, both expressly in the Constitution and implicitly derived from it by our courts, are at the very centre of our constitutional democracy. The new Human Rights and Equality Commission will be an important part of our democratic architecture to ensure that we, as a State, comply with both our Constitutions domestic equality and personal rights principles and also our international obligations to respect the human rights of all in this State, expand the equality agenda and confront and eliminate discrimination". The Minister also stated that: "We cannot nor should we ever accept or tolerate an à la carte approach to human rights and equality principles. We must continuously evaluate what we do and what we fail to do and strive to meet the highest standards. It is a central core principle of this democratic Republic that rights and equality apply to all and we cannot, nor should we, pick and choose those that are both convenient and comfortable and ignore others that are inconvenient and cause discomfort. We must also, of course, approach these matters in a practical and common sense manner recognising the limits of our financial capacity".
Minister's full speech available here
