In Northern Ireland, I think we need to be very clear, we have had a background, an unfortunate background, but it has meant that we have early doors, as you say. We have had legal protections in place in relation to fair employment going back to the 1960s. Legislation then being produced and government agencies set up in Northern Ireland to govern, monitor, and review positions around religion, political discrimination, those sorts of aspects.

We have a Fair Employment Tribunal here in Northern Ireland, not just an Employment Tribunal that they have in England. So, we have an industrial tribunal, and then we have an FET that deals specifically with religious and political discrimination claims.

There is a requirement for that to this day, and sometimes you can get on the side of things that those claims are few and far between. But there is a separate tribunal set up in relation to the protection of those sorts of issues.

In particular, the reality and the question that you're asking around the legal frameworks, you only need to look at our legislation. And yes, there have been lots of calls for reforming of the legislation on repeat. Equality Act in England that we don't have the benefit of in Northern Ireland, but what we do have is all of our separate pieces of legislation.

And that is because it is a thorny job to go back and try to roll all of our legislation up into the Equality Act the way that they've done it in England. That's because there are specific issues and history to what has gone on. But there have been clear calls, and I think the Equality Commission has been at the forefront of seeking to have the legislation updated.

Even if you go back to our disability discrimination legislation, it was in the 1970s. There have been amendments and there have been additions to it, but the cornerstone of that legislation still lies in the original act. And make no mistakes, let's be clear about it, that legislation is what the law is in Northern Ireland, and those protections are enshrined.

So, I just wanted to mention briefly, we're talking about Disability Discrimination Order, the Sex Discrimination Order, the Race Discrimination Order, FETO, under the Fair Employment and Treatment Order (Northern Ireland), which is your religious belief and your political opinions.

Disabilities, what about the neurodiverse community, people with autism, ADHD, access to work for those with impairments in relation to physical disabilities, and the ability for someone to work and to contribute and to contribute towards society? What happens?

And that was a really big question in my mind whenever I was looking at this. What happens if there is a climbdown on DEI and people who are perfectly capable and can bring huge benefits to a place of work are suddenly not included and not able to come to work? What happens then? You end up with people then that are unable to work and are reliant on benefits and on society.

So, there's an absolute concern here that if you step away from this, or even if you climb down from it, you are going to have such a huge impact.

The other issues that we have . . . I mean, yes, we have had developments in relation to the trans community and LGBT rights and all of those sorts of things. But even bringing it up to the very recent developments that we have seen, the Good Bills Act, the enhancement.

We talked on our last webinar about the Domestic Abuse Safe Act. This is another potential minority part of our community that we've enshrined when this legislation does come in that we seek to protect.

Our Programme for Government, our gender pay reporting legislation, that is on the way. Your mind starts to go down that tunnel of almost, "Where will this all bring us to in relation to it?"

But the bottom line is that the legal framework is that it is the legislation that is there, it is the case law that is developed as a result of that, it is the dicta that we have received from the courts that has enhanced the legislation that's in place.

That brings us right up then, really, to our organisations that are here to seek to promote, safeguard, and protect the legislation. So, the likes of the Equality Commission, the Labour Relations Agencies, our trade unions. And there are maybe elements that trade unions are feeling under fire and attacked also presently here in relation to if there's a climbdown from employment rights in general.

A lot of the Good Bill stuff is around flexible working, so not just the classic orange and green issues of Northern Ireland. We are much broader and bigger now in relation to the likes of flexible working, protection for women in relation to maternity leave, pregnancy, all those sorts of things. That is all diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and it is scary to think that there would be a move away from those protections in our law.

But the bottom line is the clear legal framework is that we have the legislation in place. And I do not see that there is any Programme for Government that is looking to reduce the protections at present. Certainly, it is the opposite way around where they are seeking to be enhanced.

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