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Achieving Full Citizenship for All

The Challenge

The Labour Party has a long and proud record of driving the equality agenda in Ireland. From decriminalising homosexual relations to providing for the availability of contraceptives and divorce, to legislating for women's equality in the workplace, to the passing of employment equality and equal status legislation, Labour has led the fight for an equal Ireland. However, the fight for effective and practical equality and human dignity for everyone is not yet won.

More than 30 years after it became a statutory entitlement, the pay gap between men and women has yet to be bridged. Large sectors of the economy still depend on low-paid, often part-time 'women's work'. Care for others - particularly care in the home

- continues to be undervalued, enabling the state to obtain social services on the cheap, at the expense of one gender and to the benefit of the other. Women continue to be under-represented - if they are there at all - in decision-making arenas. The government target of a minimum 40 per cent of each gender on State boards has not been realised. The percentage of women in the Dáil has plateaued at 13 per cent and only one-fifth of local councillors are women.

People with disabilities must also be enabled to participate fully in society. Yet current legislation does not recognise the right of disabled people to a similar standard of living as could reasonably be expected by any other citizen of the state. Our disability legislation creates no entitlements, other than an entitlement to be assessed as to one's needs, and it places no obligation on the state to meet those needs. As a result, persons with disabilities and their families are cast back on the cap-in-hand, hand-to-mouth provision of services, unable to plan for their long-term future.

More generally, changes in Irish society and the lives of its citizens have fast outpaced the law which is supposed to serve and protect them. There are currently over 120,000 cohabiting heterosexual unmarried couples and more than 2,000 gay couples in Ireland. They have no automatic rights of inheritance, no rights if their partner is sick and needs treatment and no right to apply to adopt, simply because they are not married. This discrimination is particularly acute in relation to gay couples, who do not have the right to marry even if they would like to.

The fact that legal protection is largely confined to traditional family units does not stop other kinds of families from getting on with their lives, but it places them under significant strain.We believe that the state has a duty to these families and others suffering from the effects of inequality in our society.

Ireland can do better

The Labour Party is committed to the vision of its founder James Connolly: 'to close the gap between what is and what ought to be'. We can make Ireland a fairer society through reform of our laws and through using the resources available to us to improve the quality of life for those who have suffered from historic and entrenched discrimination and disadvantage.

What Labour will do

Disability

Labour remains committed to an approach based on rights, equality and participation. We will work to vindicate the rights of people with disabilities to education, health, housing and work and to participate in an inclusive manner in the economic, social and cultural life of the community.

People with a disability are entitled to a strong, enforceable legal right to an assessment of their needs in relation to education, healthcare, training and residential services. That right must be underpinned by the resources to ensure that waiting lists are tackled quickly, in a planned way and in proper consultation.

Our central policy commitment is short, specific and, we believe, will effect a radical change.

What Labour will do:

At present, individual assessments of the needs of persons with a disability are ongoing. These assessments of need will be expedited and completed.
At the end of a two year period, the information extracted from these assessments will have been compiled into a national database of disability needs. The database information will be costed, in a process that is objective and independent and in which all stakeholders can have confidence.
Labour in government will use these independently arrived at costing figures to commit the necessary resources to deliver the level of service that each individual is entitled to under his or her own assessment of need.
Allowing for inflation and for a necessary lead-in period to deliver new services and enhance existing ones, a comprehensive five year plan will be published.
The funds necessary to deliver on this comprehensive plan will be withdrawn from the annual Estimates and Budget procedure and, for the duration of the plan, will be charged directly on the Central Fund as an ongoing statutory commitment and entitlement.
We are committed to ensuring that public transport is made wheel chair accessible. And we will ensure that taxi drivers who have benefited from reductions in VAT and VRT for the purchase of wheelchair accessible taxis actually provide the service for which they were given these tax concessions, by making themselves available to wheelchair users when requested.
We will review the stringent regulations governing the disabled drivers and disabled passengers tax concessions.
We will carry out a root and branch review of the building regulations, which are completely unsuitable for the needs of people with disabilities, and of the measures to ensure compliance with those regulations. We aim to ensure that at least 3 per cent of all new houses and apartments are suited to the needs of an ageing population and of persons with a disability.

As part of this approach, Labour in government will recognise the philosophy of "Independent Living" for people with disabilities. Independent living means practical measures to enable a person with a disability to make his or her own arrangements for personal assistance, transport, access, and so on.

Independent Living measures include enabling people with disabilities to employ personal assistants and so take control of their own lives. Funding for independent living means resourcing people with disabilities, and tailoring services to meet individual requirements.

Gay Rights

Labour's Civil Union Bill was defeated by the present government parties. In government, Labour will reintroduce and enact this legislation. The Bill will create a status relationship equivalent to marriage for the benefit of people who are of the same sex and who, under the current constitutional understanding of marriage, cannot marry each other. In most respects, the same rules that apply to marriage will apply to civil unions.

Partners in a civil union will have the same rights, privileges and benefits and be subject to the same obligations, penalties and other sanctions as those that apply to spouses in a marriage.
They will also be responsible for the support of one another and for any dependent child to the same degree and in the same manner as married persons.
The Bill provides that parties to a civil union who are living together may apply to adopt a child. The Bill also states that all adoption decisions must be made in the best long-term interests of the child.

Our objective, in due course, is to bring about constitutional change to provide for full equality between heterosexual and homosexual couples. In addition, Labour will take a number of measures to improve the position and well-being of lesbian, gay and transgendered citizens in our society.

We will:

Put in place policies to tackle homophobic bullying in our second level education system.
Amend employment equality legislation to prohibit schools from discriminating against their employees on the grounds of sexual orientation or marital status.
Introduce a gender recognition act to provide transgendered people with the right to realise their gender identity.
Introduce a gay and lesbian strand to the National Anti-Poverty Strategy based on updated research on poverty issues among gay and lesbian people.
Provide for a lesbian and gay community-building framework within the Pobal Strategic Plan and amend the legislation governing Community Development Projects to allow for non-locality based community projects
Appoint an official in the Department of Health to have responsibility for advising the Minister on LGBT health issues and for liaising with the LGBT community on same. We are committed to on-going funding of gay HIV strategies.
Create a national LGBT monitoring and advisory committee, under the aegis of a relevant government department

Rights of the Child

Labour shares the commitment of all political parties to put to the people, as an immediate priority, an appropriate constitutional amendment to enshrine in explicit form the rights of the child.
The wording will reflect the special vulnerabilities and dependencies of children and the consequent obligations owed to them, both by their families and by the State, and will conform to the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Labour is also committed, within 12 months of entering office, to bring all child protection legislation, including the Children Act 2001, finally into force and to adequately resourcing that legislation.

Irish-born emigrants

In harsher times Irish emigrants made a vital difference to those left behind, yet they have been sorely neglected by the State. In particular, the generation who sent back the equivalent of €3.5 billion in remittances during the 1950s and 1960s deserve to be cared for and assisted in their retirement. We are committed to providing greater assistance and support to Irish emigrants, particularly those who have fallen on hard times. It is right and fair that we extend our duty of care and responsibility to these Irish-born citizens.

In government we will implement the government's Taskforce on Policy Regarding Emigrants in full. In particular, we will:

Establish an Agency for the Irish Abroad.
Support emigrant representation in the Seanad for Irish communities oversees.
Expand the President's Gift on Reaching Age 100 to all Irish born citizens provided they can supply a valid birth or baptismal certificate.
Mandate RTÉ to broadcast in the UK.
Significantly increase funding allocations for services to the Irish abroad, particularly those experiencing hardship.
Allow emigrant representative groups representing Irish-born citizens abroad to apply to the Dormant Accounts Disbursement Board for funding.
Work to improve services to Irish-born female emigrants.
Lobby the US government to legalise the position of illegal Irish immigrants in the US while expanding opportunities for US citizens to live and work in Ireland.
Ensure all Irish-born emigrant pensioners who return to live in Ireland receive social welfare entitlements equal to those enjoyed by Irish pensioners.
Increase support for Irish-born citizens living overseas who wish to return either permanently or on holidays to Ireland.
Ensure all Irish-born emigrant pensioners have the right to free travel on public transport in Ireland.

Gender Equality

What Labour will do:

Labour is committed to ensuring that state bodies and agencies achieve at least 40 per cent representation of each gender on their boards and governing bodies. We will give statutory force to that objective and we will ensure that the social partners and other nominating bodies are bound by the same target.
We will tie public funding for political parties to the level of participation by women as public representatives those parties achieve. Demanding targets for all parties - including our own - will be set out in legislation. Payments to a qualified party under the Electoral Act will be reduced unless at least 33 per cent of its candidates are women. That 33 per cent target figure will apply to elections taking place from 2012, and will be increased to 40 per cent from 2019. Provision will be made for circumstances where a high proportion of candidates elected are women.
We believe that it is in the public interest that public and private organisations are transparent in their recruitment and remuneration policies as they pertain to male and female staff. To aid this policy, we will require large public bodies and large private companies to publish the average whole time equivalent salary for male and female members of staff on an annual basis.

Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women

The insidious and increasing prevalence of domestic violence and violence against women continues to be one of the most critical issues confronting Irish society. We are committed to tackling and eradicating domestic violence and violence against women. This means an integrated response tackling domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, prostitution, trafficking and pornography through providing supports and safety for the woman, holding accountable and sanctioning the perpetrator and those who gain economically from the abuse and commodification of women, and giving political leadership in Irish society by holding the State ultimately responsible for the safety of women.

Our first priority is a commitment to adequate and guaranteed funding for frontline services. It is totally unacceptable that women in emergency need throughout the country do no have access to support, help and counselling. Labour in government will address this deficit.We will provide,where missing,and upgrade, where inadequate, the physical infrastructure of appropriate refuges and places of safety.

A second immediate priority is reform of the courts system, civil and criminal, learning from best international experience. We will ensure appropriate locations and adequate time are provided, with dedicated and experienced judges to deal with domestic violence cases. Foremost among necessary court reforms is the need to tackle the delay in hearing cases and to have ready access to the courts for urgent applications, regardless of where in Ireland the applicant lives.

We will improve Garda training in the handling of domestic abuse cases and ensure swifter penalties for the breach of barring orders.
We will legislate in Ireland and work with our European partners to tackle human trafficking.
We will develop integrated responses to sex trafficking which do not distinguish between a 'free' or 'forced' entry route into prostitution and which do not carry the threat of forced repatriation to country of origin.
Given the interconnections between prostitution, trafficking and organised crime, the potential for sustained economic and fiscal sanctions for organisers and traffickers based on the Criminal Assets Bureau model will be investgated.

Non-marital families

Labour accepts of course that the traditional family continues to contribute enormously to the common good and that it should be given special protection in the Constitution. However, while married life and family life are, for many people, clearly connected, it is equally clear that family life and married life are not in modern conditions either identical or inextricably linked. We believe that other forms of family life can and should be given constitutional recognition and protection.

We see no conflict in proposing that the Constitution should recognise family life in general while giving special protection to the family based on marriage.

This is the approach that was favoured by the Constitution Review Group, which reported in 1996. That group recommended that the State should guarantee to all individuals respect for their family life "whether based on marriage or not".

We endorse, and will act upon, those recommendations first made in 1996. A referendum on the rights of the child will also make it clear that the Constitution's recognition of "The Family" - parents and children living together - extends to non-marital families.
As between cohabiting couples, Labour will act on the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission and the Colley Report to ensure that, although these couples have opted not to get married and so have opted out of the full system of mutual rights and obligations that govern marriage, the tax and social welfare codes and property and succession laws are suitably adapted in recognition and support of long-term relationships.
We will modernise the legal framework governing rights and responsiblities of unmarried fathers.

We can make Ireland a fairer society through reform of our laws and through using the resources available to us to improve the quality of life for those who have suffered from historic and entrenched discrimination and disadvantage.

Travellers

Travellers are native to Ireland; they have been part of Irish society for centuries. They have historically been marginalised and, as a result, the Traveller population experiences institutionalised deprivation and higher likelihoods of poor education, poor health, poor living conditions, poor relations with the law, unemployability and a markedly poor life expectancy.

Labour is convinced that, working in a spirit of mutual respect, the difficulties encountered by a population of around 30,000 individuals are neither inevitable nor insurmountable. There is no shortage of policies, programmes and plans to deal with the issues, either in general terms or in relation to specifics. What is lacking is the political will to drive these programmes forward. And a commitment to deliver them in partnership and co-responsibility with Travellers themselves, rather than handing them down from on high.

Labour in government will establish a National Office for Travellers' Affairs, similar to the National Children's Office. The National Office will have responsibility for drawing together and overseeing delivery in relation to the various Traveller-specific programmes and plans of individual government Departments, agencies and local authorities (for example, the Travellers' health programmes of the HSE, the Travellers' education programmes of the Department of Education).
The Office will hold bodies to account for their failure to draw up plans, failure to allocate resources to those plans or failure to deliver on their plans.Where a Department or agency is in default of its obligations, the Office will have statutory power to take over the Budgets and the executive and financial responsibilities of those bodies and to direct officials to carry out official plans within stated and specific timescales.
The National Office and representative Traveller bodies will also be responsible for promoting relations between Travellers and other members of the community, to ensure that rights are accompanied by a recognition of corresponding responsibilities, on both sides of the community.