The Assembly and the Executive
by Rick Wilford
From: Aspects of the Belfast Agreement edited by Rick Wilford
Oxford University Press 2001
Centering Equality
During the Assembly's shadow phase, the Committee on Standing Orders proposed the creation of a number of standing committees which, besides the small audit Committee, were to include a representative from each party. With the later exception of the Committee of the Centre, they were endorsed with little or no controversy and included the Business, Procedures, Standards and Privileges, and Public Accounts Committees. Like the statutory committees, their chairs and deputy chairs were appointed via the d'Hondt mechanism and with the exceptions of the seventeen-strong Committee of the Centre and the five member Audit Committee, were each to have eleven members.
The Committee of the Centre includes within its remit the 'Equality Unit' lodged in the Trimble/Mallon Office. The decision to locate it there was one outcome of the negotiations on the reshaping of the departments concluded in December 1998. The Agreement had suggested that the creation of a free standing 'Department of Equality' should be considered as part of the new devolved landscape (13). However, the placement of the Unit in the Office of the Centre, was the product of both a 'positive' and a 'negative' calculation. The more positive interpretation was that the authority of the Office and its two lead Ministers would ensure that the equality agenda was taken seriously by all Departments: that a stand-alone Department, headed by one Minister enjoying the same status as his/her peers would simply not carry enough clout. The negative interpretation was that its placement was a conflict-avoidance measure adopted by the UUP's and the SDLP's negotiators, designed to avoid a fully-fledged Equality Department from falling into the hands of either Sinn Fein or the DUP via the d'Hondt mechanism. The former preferring a maximalist interpretation of the equality agenda, the latter a minimalist one, the likelihood was that an Equality Minister drawn from either quarter and with a strategic, intrusive brief would cause severe difficulties caused by, respectively, over or under ambition (14). Whatever the exact reasoning behind the decision, the creation of the Unit copper-fastened the statutory obligation upon MLAs 'to promote equality of opportunity' and the Agreement's stress upon equality and human rights. The Unit's tasks included ensuring that Departments and other designated public bodies, in formulating and reviewing policies and in delivering services, comply with 'Policy Appraisal for Fair Employment', first implemented as a set of administrative guidelines for Northern Ireland's Departments in 1994 and made a statutory duty by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Sifting policies and legislative proposals through the fair treatment net is further proof that they do not exert a disparate impact upon potentially vulnerable groups within the wider population. A further safeguard is provided by the requirement to seek the view of the new and independent NI Human Rights Commission, also created under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, as to whether a Bill, or draft Bill or legislative proposal is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and any future Northern Ireland Bill of Rights --- and, of course, there is further protection through the courts which can overrule Assembly legislation on grounds of inconsistency.
13. See para 7, strand one. The Agreement committed the British government to create a statutory obligation on public authorities in Northern Ireland ' to carry out all their functions with due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity in relation to religion and political opinion; gender; race; disability; age; marital status; dependants; and sexual orientation' See the section on 'Rights, Safeguards and Equality of Opportunity' para 3, The Agreement.
14. There was also the possibility that the relationship between an Equality
Department and the new Equality Commission could be problematic, or lead
to at least some functional overlap. It is certainly the case that the Sinn
Fein negotiating team was insistent that a free standing Department was
a necessary part of the new configuration. However, they felt 'badly let
down by both the SDLP and the Irish government' when the announcement was
made on 18 December 1998. Interview with Mitchel McLaughlin, March, 2000.
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