AN ETHNIC MINORITY member of the Equality Authority’s board has said she won’t resign “just because everyone else is resigning”.
However, Salome Mbugua, originally from Kenya, told Metro Éireann that she’ll make a final decision when the board meets again in mid-February.
Mbugua, who has recently returned from a break in her native land and missed much of the furore over the authority’s savage budget cut, said she was “very disheartened” by the subsequent resignation of former chief executive Niall Crowley.
She said she understood why Crowley took the decision and believes the equality watchdog was “roughly targeted” in the budgetary cull, which drained over 40 per cent cut of its finances.
“Niall didn’t need books,” she said of the authority’s departed chief. “He didn’t need to go to the internet, he had it all. He’s such a loss, I don’t think the Government knows how much. He was known in Europe and the rest of the world for his expertise.”
Last week saw the resignation of five members of the Equality Authority’s board – Frank Goodwin of the Carers’ Association, Finola McDon-nell and Dennis O’Flynn of employers’ body Ibec, Louise O’Donnell of the trade union Impact and David Joyce of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Deputy chair of the National Women’s Council, Therese Murphym resigned last month.
The 16-person board is now down to 10 following the resignations, but the vacant positions are “in the process of being filled”, a spokesperson for the equality watchdog told Metro Éireann.
Those serving on the board each receive a gross sum of €9,000, but one informed source said that this payment is substantially reduced after tax, and that several board members had asked about its scrapping. The Department of Finance sets the amount, and has not yet made moves towards its abolishment or reduction.
