Events
Diversity – What does it mean and why should it matter to State Agency Leaders?
Date: 13/10/2021
5pm, Wednesday 13th October 2021.
ACESA hosted a panel discussion on the subject of :
Diversity – What does it mean and why should it matter to State Agency Leaders?
The panel was made up of the following speakers :
Carol Baxter, Assistant Secretary General, International Protection, Integration and Equality Division, Dept of Children;
Hilkka Becker, Chairperson, International Protection Appeals Tribunal. First EU lawyer admitted to the roll of solicitors in Ireland, a ‘new citizen’ since 2015. ACESA Board Member;
Tiernan Brady, Global Head of Diversity, Clifford Chance Law Firm. Former marriage equality campaigner in Ireland and Australia;
Kathleen Lynch, Former TD and Minister of State.
The speakers each highlighted the importance of diversity in the public sector. They each spoke about their own careers and experience and how they learned of the value of diversity.
Hilkka Becker emphasised how diversity can lead to greater productivity and collaboration in organisations. She mentioned how diverse voices coming together can lead to better ideas. Tiernan Brady spoke about the continuous need for diversity in businesses and a culture of voluntary diversity. He mentioned inclusion and diversity as two goals to keep striving towards. Kathleen Lynch spoke of her own experience as a TD and Minister of state, she spoke of the need to reach out and ensure that diversity was maintained by casting the net as far out as possible. Finally, Carol Baxter underscored the role of leaders and diversity being achieved from the top down.
Pamela Byrne then moderated a wide-ranging discussion between the panel and attendees to explore the issues in terms of diversity that impact on state agencies.
Our Panel
Carol Baxter is an Assistant Secretary at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and head of the International Protection, Equality and Integration Division. She is responsible for policy on equality and integration.
As Assistant Secretary at the Department of Justice and Equality, she led the team which developed the Migrant Integration Strategy 2017-2021 and the National Strategy for Women 2017-2021.
Previously, she was Head of Development at the Equality Authority (2006-2013) where she advised public and private sector organisations on embedding equality and diversity into their organisational structures and processes, including developing Equality Benefits Tools.
Hilkka Becker is the Chairperson of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal and an ACESA Board members. A lawyer with over 20 years professional experience specialising in asylum, migration and human rights law, she became a citizen of Ireland in 2015, and is among the few non-Irish born heads of a State Agency.
She previously served as a part-time Member of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, was Senior Solicitor at the Immigrant Council of Ireland, Legal Advisor with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), worked in private practice and as Legal Officer with the Irish Refugee Council.
Hilkka is a member of the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges (IARMJ), a member of the Justice and Home Affairs Group and of the Germany Group of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) and a Fellow of McLaughlin College at York University, Toronto.
Tiernan Brady is Global Director of Diversity, Clifford Chance Law Firm. He is responsible for developing and implementing Clifford Chance’s global inclusion policies and campaigns within the firm, with its clients and in wider society.
Tiernan is an equality campaigner. Before taking up the role in Clifford Chance he was the director of the Equality Campaign, the successful Australian marriage equality campaign and political director of Yes Equality, the successful Irish campaign for marriage equality – the only two countries in the world to enact marriage equality by public vote.
He served as the Director of Organisation to then Tánaiste Mary Coughlan from 2008 before taking up a senior role with the the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN).
Tiernan is a former Mayor of his hometown of Bundoran.
Kathleen Lynch is a former TD and Minister of State. First elected to the Dáil for Cork North Central in 1994, she served her constituency until 2016.
She was appointed Minister of State for Disability, Equality & Mental Health in March 2011.
On her retirement from political life, Kathleen spoke passionately about her concern that the debate and progress around diversity was leaving behind people from working class backgrounds.