Opening Statement to the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
Opening Statement to the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
Helen Crickard – Reclaim the Agenda
Reclaim the Agenda was established in 2010, during a period of funding cuts across Government departments and the European Social Fund, we recognised it would have a serious negative impact on the Women’s Centres, who receive small pockets of funding across multiple departments. To ensure and maintain connectivity and not competition, we reinstated the International Women’s Day Rally to bring our Women’s Centres together with the wider Women’s Movements.
RTA campaigns on six key themes: a life free from poverty, free from discrimination, and free from domestic and sexual violence and abuse. To live in a world where women are equally represented as decision makers and have access to quality, affordable and flexible childcare.
The Good Friday Agreement provided assurances that the voices of women in civic society would be heard, as chair of the Women’s Coalition it was hard fought to have a Civic Forum in the document and was vital for the women we represented across NI, to act as a consultative mechanism on social, economic and cultural issues.
The injustices that women faced during the conflict, have not improved equally across society as it is women from disadvantaged areas that continue to suffer under paramilitary control. While protocols are in place to ensure cross party support on decisions, on the allocation of resources, it has been a carve up between the two main parties. Resulting in duplication of services and investment in areas that have dominant support from one party and re-enforcing sectarianism.
The lack of strategies, such as the Violence Against Women and Girls, Anti-Poverty and Childcare have been unduly slow to set up and where they are signed off, the resources have been inadequate. Lack of attention to these policies has further disenfranchised the voice of women, whose participation in society rely on having adequate childcare and eldercare. Resourcing of the women’s centres and community sector is insufficient, with a patchwork of funders, annual contracts and heavily scrutinised meaning the sector is in constant firefighting mode.
The Women’s Centres are the front line in communities, often the first point of contact for women who seek help for their families, be it domestic abuse, mental health, drug addiction, suicide, poverty, bullying, coercive control and financial abuse form paramilitaries, who are excellent in providing support, yet they are seriously under-funded and under-pressure. Our population has a changed a lot since 1998 but the Racial Equality Strategy 2015-2025, has made little inroads is addressing racial equality, while the women centres accommodate the new emerging families with little or no additional financial resources.
Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement has focused on joining the orange and green, but our society was always so much more than that. The dysfunctionality of Stormont has been clear in the financial scandals that reveal a cavalier approach to the public purse, constant squabbling over power with little accountability has led to an apathy towards Stormont, power sharing. Tackling paramilitarism has further entrenched those in communities who had/have weaponry, rather than challenging, they have been appeased.
There are clear outstanding commitments from GFA, the Bill of Rights is critical as the UK pulled out of Europe against the majority in NI, but also from subsequent agreements, particularly the social inclusion strategies on Poverty, disability, Gender, and LGBT+ that are not implemented. The work of the Women’s Sector continues to hold the peace and build relations with new emerging communities without the financial support that should be in place.
Watch the full session here https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_the_implementation_of_the_good_friday_agreement/2024-06-27/
