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Research Matters

Engaging General Election candidates on equality issues

 
 

Stakeholder groups were recently given a unique opportunity to engage a number of General Election candidates who took part in a pre-election event organised by the Life Course Institute (LCI).  As Professor Pat Dolan, Academic Director of the Life Course Institute notes “scrutinising party policies in relation to children and families, persons with disabilities and older people is critically important, particularly in a time of limited resources”. 

The political spectrum was well represented at the meeting with all of the main political parties represented. Fidelma Healy Eames stated that “Fine Gael’s vision is for a just society” and that Fine Gael believed in taking a very strong pro-enterprise business approach balanced with “a strong social justice wing”. Derek Nolan stated that the Labour Party believed “that there should be a social floor for participation and rights” that no one should fall below that floor.   He stated that the party was “committed to protecting current rights and as resources allow, to progressively raise that floor for everybody”. Eamon O’Cuiv said that one of the challenges for disability payments “was to differentiate between the different levels of disability so that you could grade payments”.
  
Many issues were raised across the life course, including intergenerational conflict, the children’s rights constitutional referendum, the right to independent living in the community and direct payments for persons with disabilities.  All of the candidates from the main political parties stated that they were committed to a constitutional referendum on children’s rights.  The candidates for Fine Gael and Labour acknowledged the difficulties in delivering services across the life course due to fiscal constraints but stated that they were committed to the progressive realisation of rights. 

Donncha O’Connell, School of Law and event rapporteur highlighted an acknowledgement by all parties that there were less resources available to the State requiring a more radical assessment of service delivery.  He suggested the need to review the disproportionate concentration of power located in the executive and department of finance, which was disconnected from people and their needs.

The LCI comprises a multidisciplinary facility, which is intended to integrate and enhance the work of three existing centres at NUI Galway, the Centre for Disability Law & Policy, the Child & Family Research Centre, and the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology. The Institutes recently prepared its inaugural Critical Perspectives Paper, a statement of the major policy challenges facing the next Government across the life course.

Authors: Charles O'Mahony, Postgraduate Researcher, Centre for Disability Law & Policy
             & Mary Keogh, Postgraduate Researcher, Centre for Disability Law & Policy

 

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