Transcripts courtesy of The Northern Ireland Information Service 
 

Equality/Human Rights

Former RTE head to lead North Equality Commission. Irish Times P6, see also Irish Daily Star P12, Irish News P7. The appointment of a former RTE Director General as the new head of the Equality Commission was slammed last night by the DUP and UUP as a slight on the unionist community. News Letter P9. Give me a chance: Commissioner. Daily Ireland P3. Leading Sinn Fein and SDLP politicians called for the Equality Commission to deliver on commitments contained in the Good Friday Agreement. Daily Ireland P11.

Human Rights appointment unacceptable for unionists. Editorial News Letter P8.

If he sticks to his brief and treats everyone equally .... he might just get the troubled Commission back on the road. Unless that is there are those in power who are happy to set up the incoming Equality Commission for a fall by denying it the powers or personnel to fulfil its role. Editorial Daily Ireland P20.

Program: UTV Live
Date & Time: July 19, 2005 
Subject: Equality Commission

PAUL CLARKE

The DUP has criticized the appointment of former Director General of RTE as the new head of the Northern Ireland Equality Commission. Bob Collins will take over from Dame Joan Harbinson at the end of the month, he stood down as Director General of RTE in October 2003. The Deputy leader of the DUP, Peter Robinson claims the appointment demonstrates the Government’s disregard for the views of the unionist community in Northern Ireland.

Program: GMU
Date & Time: July 20, 2005 (08.18)
Subject Equality Commissioner

CONOR BRADFORD

Well Bob Collins is listening to that and he’s on the line now. Good morning to you. What’s your reaction to what Gregory Campbell was saying there?

BOB COLLINS

Well I understand why in circumstances like this, people in elected office make particular kind of observations. I simply reiterate what I said yesterday that I did come to this position with a sense of complete openness, with detachment and with total objectivity. I have no baggage, I have no presuppositions and I don’t bring any predetermined positions. 

I think there was a reference yesterday to the confidence of the community and I think that if the only source of the community’s confidence in a public body is that the head of that body is one of its own, I think that that could be a recipe for endless dissatisfaction and for mutual community disengagement. And if taken to its ultimate conclusion it would be a self defeating argument. And the issue, I think, is not where I come from but where I’m going. And with the Commission I have no doubt that we will address all of the issues that face Northern Ireland in terms of equality.

CONOR BRADFORD

Well you say you have no baggage, you bring no baggage to it and one has to take you at your word. But there’s an assumption obviously from Gregory Campbell, and other unionists as well, that as the former head of the sort of Republic State broadcaster you inevitably will have some political baggage with you?

BOB COLLINS

Well first of all, I never worked for a State broadcaster, I worked for a public broadcasting organization and there is a major difference. And the notion and the fact that you convey the suggestion that someone who works for public broadcasting ipso facto by definition carries a political dimension, is frankly mind boggling.

CONOR BRADFORD

Well it’s not me who’s making that suggestion, that is the ….

BOB COLLINS

Now well, well it was with respect implicit in your question. The whole point of the life of a public broadcaster is of being detached from political involvement and objective in relation to all political issues. And that’s the degree of detachment and objectivity that I will bring to the work of the Equality Commission.

CONOR BRADFORD

Will you attempt to launch a charm offensive to try and persuade the likes of Gregory Campbell that you are an even handed man when it comes to equality?

BOB COLLINS

No, I won’t launch a charm offensive because I think that that probably would be as shallow as it sounds. What I will do is as I said yesterday, before any public comments were made about my appointment, I will seek to meet with all of the political parties, with a whole range of organizations in Northern Ireland, so that I can hear what they have to say and that they can hear what I have to say. 

I’m not going to make any pronouncements about what should be the work program or priority of the Commission before I formally take up office, and more particularly before I’ve had an opportunity to meet with and discuss matters with the existing commissioners in the newly appointed Commission, I think that would be unwise and it would be wrong. 

But I am completely open and I am completely open to discussion with everybody about the formal legal remit of the Equality Commission and my commitment is to do this job with integrity and with detachment. And you’re right "by their fruits ye shall know them". Of course it is correct to say that the only way to judge people is by what they do and by the results that they deliver and by the approach they adopt in producing those results.

CONOR BRADFORD

Okay.

BOB COLLINS

And if that’s the approach that people take to me and my appointment I’m perfectly happy with that and I understand why in certain circumstances it may appear strange that people may react to the fact that somebody from, whose working life has been in Dublin and who is from the Republic, has been appointed to a public position in Northern Ireland.

Program: GMU
Date & Time: July 20, 2005 – 8.14am
Subject: Equality Commissioner

KAREN PATTERSON

Unionists have criticized the decision to appoint the former Director General of RTE, Bob Collins, as the new head of the Northern Ireland Equality Commission. Earlier I spoke to the DUP MP Gregory Campbell, I began by asking what exactly his concerns were?

GREGORY CAMPBELL

Well there is a two-fold concern really, one is about personnel on the Commission, including Mr. Collins. The appointments made yesterday by the Secretary of State unfortunately don’t give any reflection to our community in Northern Ireland, and this is not the first time this has happened, so it does have to be remedied. You simply can’t have an important commission such as the Equality Commission overseeing very vital areas of work where there isn’t anyone that reflects the majority unionist community in Northern Ireland, that’s the first one which is personnel …

KAREN PATTERSON

The Secretary of State, Peter Hain, has described Mr. Collins as a champion of equality?

GREGORY CAMPBELL

Yes, well that might well be, but he does not reflect the unionist community so we have to see what he is like, what he performs like. But the second thing and probably the more important thing, because even if the personnel issue was rectified, we need the program of work. 

The Equality Commission, and before that the Fair Employment Commission, is notorious in the unionist community for not addressing the worsening problem of Protestant under representation in the workforce and we have raised this for a number of years, for many, many years, about the worsening program of under representation particularly in the public sector. 

We’ve raised it time without number with the Equality Commission and they don’t seem to address the concerns that the Protestant community have, so the Government have to address the problem of getting the right people on the Commission and when they do that, then that Commission has to address the problem that the Protestant community have in the workforce.

KAREN PATTERSON

But Mr. Collins in response to some of your concerns has appealed for you "not to make any assumptions about me", he says that he’s open to having conversations with everybody and will be completely open and objective, do you not think you’ve moved too quickly to criticize?

GREGORY CAMPBELL

Well given that we have been meeting with the Equality Commission for years, I and my colleagues have been raising these issues for years, and I don’t mean two or three years, I’m talking about decades now that we’ve been raising these issues and people have been saying the same things to us. Mr. Collins, his entire Commission and the Northern Ireland Office have to move to answer the question, why is it that the Protestant community are so under represented in the public sector? 

No matter where we look, whether it’s the Civil Service, whether it’s the Housing Executive, whether it’s the Child Support Agency, the Royal Mail, there’s a whole series, a whole raft of areas in the public sector where the Protestant community are not being recruited in numbers that they ought to be, that their numbers reflect of the community. 

Now they have to address the problem there, and they have to do something about it, and Mr. Collins has to respond and has to ensure that the Protestant community have an equitable number in the recruitment of people into those areas.

KAREN PATTERSON

But there is still time and the potential for Mr. Collins to win your trust?

GREGORY CAMPBELL

Well, we will judge Mr. Collins and the rest of the Commission and who the Government appoints to it, on the basis of what they do, and up until now it is what they have not done. They have responded to nationalist concerns, they have yet to respond to unionist concerns. That is how we’ll judge them.

July 21, 2005

Equality/Human Rights

The Irish News Editorial P10 says that, if the antipathy towards the new head of the Northern Ireland Equality Commission, Bob Collins, is directed at him because he was born in the Republic, it is grossly unfair, whilst the Belfast Telegraph Editorial P20 says that it is hardly surprising that unionists have been critical of the appointment. It comments that the Government has provided no information about the shortlist or why Collins should be preferred for such an important role.