Remarks by Eilis Barry BL

• Date: 01 January 2019

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Remarks by

EILIS BARRY BL*1

Good evening. I’d like to thank Daniel and his colleagues at the Hibernian Law

Journal for inviting me to speak at their Annual Lecture.

I think the fact that Brexit was also the topic of last year’s Lecture is a testament

to the importance of, and the complexity of, the issue as well as a growing sense of

unease and concern that exists about the implications of Brexit for human rights

and equality protection, particularly in Northern Ireland. I am anticipating that

Caoilionn will be dealing with the issue of citizenship so my primary focus will

be on equality and human rights, and in particularly equality.

I know that at one stage the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission were

seeking funding to enable them, together with the Irish Human Rights and Equality

Commission, to carry out a comprehensive audit of the equality and human rights

implications of Brexit. Such an audit remains a valuable exercise, even at this late

stage, given the complexity and importance of the issues at stake.

e Free Legal Advice Centre (‘FLAC’) is an independent human rights NGO,

which has been in existence for 50 years, campaigning for equal access to justice.

FLAC runs an information and referral line and operates legal advice clinics in

over 67 locations around the country, which are located within and facilitated

by the Citizens Information Services, where volunteer lawyers provide basic free

legal advice. I wish to acknowledge the contribution of the volunteer lawyers

who are here tonight. FLAC enjoys a good relationship with its Northern Ireland

counterpart, the Law Centre Northern Ireland, and we have informally discussed

the implications of Brexit with some bemusement and bewilderment.

e daily reality is that hundreds of children live in one jurisdiction and go to

school in the other. Students live on one side of the border and travel to college

every day or go to their homes at the weekend. Families live one side of the border

and work on the other side of the border. People travel across the border in order

to avail of the best health care available to them. At the moment, children on the

island of Ireland can access healthcare on either side of the border, including acute

psychiatric hospital services and community-based outpatient care to include

dental, orthodontic, speech and language care. ere were 1,700 treatments

funded for Irish citizen patients last year under the Cross-Border Directive and

approximately 700 were provided in Northern Ireland.

We anticipate that we and our colleagues in in the Northern Ireland Law Centre

will receive queries about social welfare entitlements, healthcare, employment,

immigration and citizenship law post Brexit. FLAC also operates a public interest

* Eilis Barry is Chief Executive Ocer of the Free Legal Advice Centre.