Ex-chief reveals attacks on authority

THE former head of the Equality Authority has revealed an attempt to sack him and a boardroom coup before the devastating budget cut that finally forced his resignation.

In a book just published, Niall Crowley says political interference and hostility from civil servants also undermined the authority and its groundbreaking work.

Mr Crowley resigned as chief executive 18 months ago after the Department of Justice slashed its budget by 43%. In Empty Promises – Bringing the Equality Authority to Heel, he reveals this was just the last in a series of behind the scenes attacks on the authority.

He says the troubles began in earnest in 2004 when the authority was five years old and he was suddenly told by the department that his contract as chief executive was not being renewed despite the authority’s board unanimously deciding to appoint him to the position on a permanent basis. He staved off that move by threatening legal action but then justice minister Michael McDowell made his remark that a bit of inequality was good for society.

“That was the beginning of the sapping of political will,” Mr Crowley said.

Around then, plans were made to decentralise the authority to Roscrea, to a temporary premises which was not wheelchair accessible.

In 2007, the department appointed a board that excluded all previous members and Mr Crowley claims new chair Angela Kerins sought to take over his role as authority spokesman and to end his role in selecting discrimination cases to be aired at the Equality Tribunal.

The following year departmental plans to merge the authority with the Human Rights Commission and the Data Protection Commission emerged and, later that year, the disastrous budget cut was announced.

Mr Crowley said he had no choice but to resign.

He believes part of the authority’s problem was it was taking cases against policies implemented by the public sector which some civil servants took personally.

“We were also deemed inappropriate for Celtic Tiger times. The core belief was everything is allowed, anything is possible and here we were saying this isn’t allowed and that isn’t possible. It was counter-cultural. It was a time when all forms of regulation collapsed and we were trying to regulate.”

He disagrees that the budget cut was inevitable given the recession. “It wasn’t about cutbacks, it was about rendering us unviable.”

* Empty Promises will be launched by Labour leader Eamon Gilmore in Dublin this Thursday evening.