ECNI: “where it believes that a public authority may have failed to comply with its approved Equality Scheme…”

As UTV note, the Equality Commission For Northern Ireland have announced that they are “to conduct an investigation into a decision made by Newry and Mourne District council to retain the name “The Raymond McCreesh Park” for a Council-owned play park in Newry.”  Here’s Mick’s post on that decision in December last year.

From the Equality Commission press release

The investigation will consider whether, in making its decision, the Council has failed to comply with commitments made in its Equality Scheme:  namely to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity across the nine equality groups, and to have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group.

Under paragraph 11 of Schedule 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 the Equality Commission is empowered to conduct an investigation where it believes that a public authority may have failed to comply with its approved Equality Scheme.

After consideration by its Statutory Duties Investigation Committee, the Commission is satisfied that it would be appropriate to have a belief that such a failure may have occurred in this instance. This is not a determination of whether or not such a failure has in fact occurred.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.