IT MAY be fearless in ensuring that discrimination is stamped out in all areas of Irish society, but it seems that the Equality Authority's egalitarian writ may not quite run to one of the great divides in Irish society - that of Dublin's Northside and Southside.
The Irish Times understands that a proposal by the Office of Public Works to relocate the authority's Dublin staff north across the Liffey, from Dublin 2 to Dublin 1, has met with some resistance.
The authority is in the process of being decentralised to Roscrea in Co Tipperary. At present, some 15 staff are located there, all of whom have been transferred from other departments and agencies. By the time the decentralisation process is completed by 2010, a total of 57 staff will be based at the authority's new headquarters outside the capital.
However, difficulties have arisen in relation to the 15 or 16 staff who will, it is envisaged, remain in Dublin after the process is complete. At present, the Equality Authority's offices are in Clonmel Street near Stephen's Green in Dublin 2.
However, the new accommodation being proposed is on the other side of the river Liffey in Dublin 1.
The authority's sponsoring department, justice, told The Irish Times that the Office of Public Works (OPW) is overseeing accommodation requirements for staff who are not decentralising and remaining in Dublin once the process is complete.
The OPW has identified the Irish Life Centre in Abbey Street, Dublin 1, as suitable for the remaining staff, according to a departmental spokesman.
"The department understands that most of the accommodation in the Irish Life Centre is currently occupied and any proposed move of staff will not take place until early 2009," said the spokesman.
It is understood that the Equality Authority may well have an issue with that. This is on the basis that it has already been asked to decentralise and to ask the staff to move again may cause some upset.
The proposed move has yet to be discussed by the board of the authority and as yet there has been no detailed consultation with staff on the move. The authority would make no comment on the proposed move.
The Equality Authority is one of a number of State agencies that have had difficulties with the decentralisation process. At the initial stages, it had one of the lowest levels of take-up among those bodies which were moving headquarters from the capital.
