Irish in Britain held its 2014 AGM in the London Irish Centre to mark 60 years of the LIC.
There were presentations from St Finbarr’s Coventry; Innisfree Housing Association and Caranua. Along with Workshops on Good Governance delivered by IIB Board member Pauline Roche and a second on Clubs: Governance and Management by Rita Corrigan and John Gradwell from our Capacity Building Team.
Three Motions were put to the floor and all three were carried. The first brought by John O’Connor from the Irish Pensioners Forum in East London called for Irish in Britain to welcome the appointment of the Minister for the Diaspora, Jimmy Deenihan TD and was carried unanimously.
The second and third were tabled by Claire Barry of Mind Yourself. Motion two was worded as:
Mind Yourself, believes that, until such time as the matter is properly provided for by the NI Assembly, the NHS England should provide access to safe, legal and free abortion for women resident in Northern Ireland on the same basis as emergency medical care is currently available to visitors from NI. We call on Irish in Britain to write to the Secretary of State for the Department of Health to request he bring this change about.
This was carried after some debate and passionate points made on the floor.
The third motion also by Mind Yourself concerned Equality Statements and ESP funding; it read:
Mind Yourself believes that promoting equality and recognising diversity should be at the core of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade work, including the allocation of funds to groups who work with and represent the Irish community overseas. We call on Irish in Britain to write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to request that all organisations who apply for funding through the Emigrant Support Programme provide an equalities statement as part of the application process.
