Our Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty

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Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 is a statutory obligation for public sector bodies to have regard f the need to eliminate discrimination, promote equality, and protect human rights in their daily work. This is known as our ‘Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty’.

The Department completed a Public Sector Duty Assessment in 2018 and since then, has been through a large-scale transformation programme, including a restructuring of the organisation, a transfer of functions and a redesign of processes and procedures. In 2020, the Department established an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Public Sector Duty (PSD) Committee with senior representation from across the organisation. This Committee reviewed the PSD assessment and decided that, in order to bring a focus and coherence across the Department to the equality and human rights agenda, the starting point should be to develop an EDI Strategy.

The EDI Strategy was published in March 2022 and aims to achieve:

• Better policy outcomes and improve the accessibility and quality of our services
• Support the development of a skilled and diverse workforce
• Build and embed a workplace culture which facilitates, supports and encourages contributions from all.

The strategy contains a number of actions which are integrated into business plans across the Department with appropriate indicators and monitored along with other organisation goals and strategic priorities. The objective of the EDI & PSD Committee is to oversee the Public Sector Human Rights and Equality duty and to devise, oversee and promote equality, diversity and inclusion for the Department. The Committee monitors the implementation of the actions within the EDI strategy and meets on a quarterly basis.

In addition to oversight by the EDI & PSD Committee, the following key channels are used by the Department to address its Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty obligations:

• Department of Justice Statement of Strategy, Action Plan and Annual Report;
• The Equality Budgeting initiative;
• Better Public Services Transformation 2030 Strategy;
• Civil Service Renewal 2030 Strategy and Action Plan;
• Customer Charter and Customer Service Action Plan 2025-2028; and the
• HR Strategy and Initiatives

The assessments carried out in 2018 are accessible via this link Public Sector Duty Equality and Human Rights Assessments.