COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 11, 2023

QUESTION NO. 2

QUESTION: Councillor C. Bailey

To ask the Chief Executive for a report in relation to SDCCs obligations under S42 Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014. In particular, regarding "the actions to be taken to enable [SDCC] implementation of the Duty, and the key moments for implementing the duty in developing or reviewing our strategies plans, programmes and policies.

REPLY:

The South Dublin County Council Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty Framework and first annual action plan were published in 2022. The Framework is available as a PDF document, and an Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreted video, from the Council’s Public Sector Duty webpage in www.sdcc.ie.

Publication of the Framework fulfils South Dublin County Council’s commitment under our Corporate Plan and the legal requirement under Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014, otherwise referred to as the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty.

The ‘Duty’ sets out the responsibilities for all public bodies in Ireland to promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the human rights of their employees, customers, service users and everyone affected by their policies and plans.

The identified groups, for the Public Sector Duty are those:

• covered by the grounds under our equality legislation: gender (including gender identity); civil status; family status (including lone parents and carers); age; disability; sexual orientation; race (encompassing race, colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins); religion; and membership of the Traveller community; and
• groups covered by the ground of socio-economic status, who are at risk of or experiencing poverty and social exclusion.

This Equality and Human Rights Framework has been developed as part of our commitment to implementing the Duty and doing to so to a high level of ambition and to a high standard. It presents:

• the assessment of human rights and equality issues facing the identified groups and of relevance to the Council’s functions and services;
• the SDCC equality and human rights Values Statement, which identifies those values that motivate our shared concern for equality and human rights and provides benchmarks, related to each value, for our ambition in this area and, specifically for the Duty; and
• the actions to be taken to enable our implementation of the Duty, and the key moments for implementing the duty in developing or reviewing our strategies plans, programmes and policies.

The Council’s cross departmental Public Sector Equality and Human Rights working group (chaired by the Director of CPCM), has recently been expanded to include active representation from all service Directorates. This action has been taken in recognition of the fact that equality and human rights are core to all services and responsibilities across SDCC. The purpose of the Group is to guide, support and monitor the implementation of the SDCC Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty Framework, and to draw on, and build on, existing expertise in equality and human rights related issues in the local authority.

The Council’s progress with implementing the Framework and meeting our responsibilities under the legislation are reported on within the annual report. Public Sector Duty webpages are also provided on both the staff intranet and www.sdcc.ie

Examples of key moments since publication of the SDCC Framework:

• The first annual staff event under the Framework took place on Friday, 9 December 2022. This event celebrated UN Human Rights Day and provided an opportunity to brief staff on SDCC’s various actions to address human rights and equality both for staff and the communities we serve. After the event Mayor Emma Murphy officially launched the Equality and Human Rights Framework. Information stands were displayed by IHREC, SDCC LGBTQ+ Staff Network, Community Services and Human Resources.
• SDCC HR mounted a successful Dignity in the workplace campaign, which included wellbeing webinars on a variety of topics and the production of a suite of three infographics listing 30 “Tips of Dignity and Respect”.
• The South Dublin Women’s Caucus hosted an event to mark International Women’s Day on Wednesday, 8 March 2023. The event was a panel discussion on the role of women in politics, the benefit of female participation and the importance of continued growth in the numbers of women engaging in local democracy.
• The International Women’s Day event also marked the official launch of South Dublin County Council’s “Your Vote Your Voice -an easy-to-read guide to voting” booklet which explains the voting process in Ireland. The purpose of the booklet is to provide information on how to exercise your right to vote, such as information on the different types of elections and voting that takes place in Ireland and how you register to vote.
• As part of the Women in Politics campaign, research was carried out with women who ran in the 2019 elections to inform the next stage in the project.
• A variety of Council publications including recruitment and housing related documents, actions plans and policies have been plain English, and equality proofed.
• Accessibility of sdcc.ie has been improved in line with the EU Web Accessibility Directive requirements.