News
Union slams NUIG gender equality report
Staff of NUI Galway – past and present – as well as student representatives, have criticised the recommendations of a gender equality taskforce which reported to the university’s governing body.
In a pre-emptive move, trade union IFUT, NUIG Students Union and campaigner Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington issued a joint statement, reiterating their stance on the need for action against discrimination at NUIG.
Separately, the trade union SIPTU, issued a statement outlining what it calls “crucial flaws” in the gender equality taskforce report.
Their statements to media coincided with a special meeting of NUIG’s Governing Body, which convened to discuss and adopt the final report of the taskforce looking into gender inequality in senior posts at the university, and all its recommendations.
The taskforce, chaired by Professor Jane Grimson of Trinity College, contains 24 recommendations aimed at promoting gender equality at NUIG.
Among the recommendations is that all committees and working groups at the university should have a minimum of 40 per cent of women by the end of this year, and 50 per cent by late 2018. It also recommends that mandatory gender quotas are required to ensure more women are promoted to senior academic posts.
Welcoming the report, NUIG president Dr Jim Browne said: “I look forward to working with all staff, staff representatives and unions in addressing gender equality in a meaningful and serious way. In this way, I expect that NUIG will become a leader in this space.
“We made a commitment a year ago to addressing gender equality across the University with the highest priority. I now want to reiterate this commitment, as our Governing Body adopts this taskforce report and its recommendations.”
He said the appointment of a vice-president for equality and diversity reflects NUIG’s commitment to “transformational change”.
SIPTU, who did not co-operate with the taskforce because of concerns over its independence, has highlighted “crucial flaws” in the report. SIPTU Equality Committee spokesperson at NUIG Maggie Ronayne said: “We need action not optics. The taskforce and its report are not independent and its focus is too narrow.
“The taskforce was not trusted by staff and students, receiving only 38 original submissions out of a total staff of 2,310 and a student body of over 17,000. While the report acknowledges that gender inequality is evident across the university, it holds no-one accountable for this. This report is very far from the independent review demanded by SIPTU.
“There are some positive elements in the report. Unfortunately, these are accompanied by many fundamental flaws. It does not tackle the real problems faced by the majority of those working and studying at the university, a majority of whom are women.”
She added: “The report fails to address, in any meaningful way, the discrimination and unfair treatment faced by administrative, general operative and technical staff, academics and others on precarious contracts or casually employed, researchers or students. The few recommendations regarding some of these staff or students are token gestures or misguided proposals which may make matters worse.
“The report proposes actions which may result in more academic women being promoted to senior positions. However, gender quotas are not a long-term solution to the underlying problem of institutional discrimination across all grades of staff. Quotas will not resolve the fundamental, underlying problem of unfair treatment of those with caring responsibilities, a majority of whom are women.”
In its joint statement, IFUT, Students Union and Dr Sheehy Skeffington, said: “With the adoption of the task force recommendations, and the recent appointment of a Vice President for Equality and Diversity to implement them, NUIG management will claim they are putting right the injustice to women at the university for which NUIG has received such bad publicity. This is not true.”
They urge the university to five women who were shortlisted and deemed eligible for promotion to senior lecturer positions in 2008/9 but who, like Dr Sheehy Skeffington, were not promoted.
The joint statement added: “That promotion round was truly appalling for women, being much worse than any other – only one woman was promoted against sixteen men, comprising just 6.7% of the female candidates applying, compared to 50% of male candidates. In addition, while her Equality Tribunal ruling could only directly apply to Dr Sheehy Skeffington, ten of the instances of gender discrimination it cited are also relevant to the five other women shortlisted and not promoted.
“We insist NUIG management ends its intransigence and promotes the five other women. We will continue to jointly campaign for this to happen until NUIG does so.”
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
