It seems like yesterday, says Melanie Pine, sitting in her office in the Equality Tribunal just off Harcourt Street in Dublin, thinking back to her first days in the building.

The tribunal is five years old this week and its area of responsibility has grown considerably in that time.

In October 1999, when Ms Pine took on the role of director - a mix of chief executive and quasi-judge - the tribunal had a staff of twelve. Now there are 30 members of staff, of whom twelve are qualified equality officers - people who listen to complaints under the various headings covered by the tribunal and deliver judgements.

Of the twelve, two - including Ms Pine - are managers.

"We are not crusaders here. We are just administering the law," she says, seeking to explain and emphasise the difference between the tribunal and the Equality Authority which, unhelpfully perhaps, is situated next door.

The tribunal does not push the equality agenda as such and, as a tribunal with a quasi-judicial role, cannot give advice or guidance.

"We are committed to reaching decisions that are impartial, fair, balanced, robust and well-founded in law," she says. "Most complainants don't win."

Last year about 30 per cent of complaints were successful. This year it will be about 40 per cent." Lest this should sound harsh, Ms Pine is clear about her position on discrimination.

"I'm a great believer in fairness and justice. Giving certain individuals less favourable treatment is not justified. Having said that, my job is very much to give each side a fair hearing, rather than to campaign."

She is proud that although the tribunal is run by public servants who are, so to speak, non-specialists, very few of the tribunal's rulings are overturned by the courts.

"It is a very complicated job and equality officers are sometimes faced with senior counsel on each side." Officers sit as single member tribunals though they can seek advice from an in-house lawyer. All officers to date are career civil servants who have taken courses in law during their career.

"It is a uniquely rewarding job in the civil service, involving a lot of autonomy and a lot of power." The Equality Authority can bring a case before the tribunal as it did in the case of an ageist Ryanair advertisement for a "young, dynamic professional".

Ryanair's argument that it meant young in spirit rather than in years, did not convince the tribunal.

Before a complaint is heard a complainant must show that he or she has a prima facie case and it is at this stage that a lot of cases fall down. If the complainant gets past this hurdle, the onus shifts to the employer to show that the substance of the complaint is not correct.

While investigating a complaint the tribunal has significant powers. It can enter buildings, seize documents, and compel people to appear before it.

Furthermore, where a complainant is successful, an award of compensation of up to two years' pay can be made.

The highest award to date was for €127,000 and was made to a schoolteacher who had been unfairly passed over for promotion. In another case, involving Golden Vale, a woman who had been summarily demoted was given an award of €107,000.

The tribunal's findings and awards are legally binding though they can be appealed to the Circuit Court. The tribunal can also dictate that, for instance, an employer should introduce certain changes into its promotional procedures, so as to prevent discrimination reoccurring.

The tribunal seeks to settle disputes by way of mediation unless one of the parties concerned calls for a hearing. Forty per cent of complaints lead to mediation attempts, and 70 per cent of these lead to agreement. An advantage for both sides is that the matter can be dealt with more quickly this way, after seven or eight months rather than one to one-and-a-half years.

Hearings are preceded by submissions from both sides and other gathering of evidence. An equality officer will sit and hear both sides before making a ruling. Representation, legal or otherwise, is not required and most cases are heard in a day. The longest hearing to date was 20 days.

As far as possible, the tribunal tries to sit close to where the complainant lives, rather than have him or her travel to Dublin for the hearing. There is no fee.

The tribunal hears employment cases and equal status cases and the awards it can make in the two categories are quite different.

Equal status cases, involving persons being discriminated against in the delivery of goods or services, can result in a maximum award of €6,500.

The maximum awarded to date was €3,000. During 2003 the tribunal heard 1,078 claims of discrimination, of which 361 were employment claims and the rest equal status claims.

From earlier this year the tribunal is also concerned with discrimination in the area of pension entitlement. Persons who believe they may have been discriminated against in terms of pension services can bring a complaint to the tribunal.

The nine grounds for discrimination with which the tribunal is concerned are: gender; marital status; family status; sexual orientation; religion; age; disability; race; and membership of the Traveller community.

In the area of employment approximately one-third of the cases have to do with promotion. Gender, race, age and disability - in that order - are the most common issues to feature.

In the area of equal status, the four biggest categories are Travellers, race, age and disability. The issue is usually one of access, to places such as shops or restaurants, or to a service or product.

Insurance is a large issue, with younger drivers complaining about car insurance and older Travellers complaining about travel insurance.

Since September of last year the tribunal has not been dealing with alleged discrimination in licensed premises.

Ms Pine does not feel that her tribunal is misused by people out to harass an employer or make trouble while pursuing a particular agenda.

She points out that the majority of awards are small - between €500 and €600 for equal status cases - and between €7,000 and €8,000 for employment cases. She also has the authority to dismiss cases she believes are vexatious.

A challenge looming on the horizon arises from the government's controversial decentralisation policy.

The tribunal is one of those public bodies that contains within its staff a huge amount of accumulated experience and knowledge about a particular, complex area.

Not one of its staff has expressed an interest in moving with the tribunal to its assigned new location in Portarlington, Co Laois. Asked for her own intention, Ms Pine says she hasn't decided yet.

"If it was done in a planned way over the next few years, it would be difficult but it could be done," she says of decentralisation.

As well as institutional knowledge, a second issue is that more than half of the tribunal's complainants are from Dublin, so the tribunal, if it moves to Portarlington, may need a premises in the capital to which its officers can travel to hear cases.

Ms Pine says the challenge will be to train in new equality officers while maintaining the tribunal's momentum and preserving the quality of its work.

She believes it would take three years to train in new officers and staff on a phased handover basis. Portarlington is well served by road and rail, she points out.

Ironically, the tribunal tends not to get many cases from the midlands.

Going forward, the agenda is to increase the public's awareness of the tribunal's existence and function, to the greatest extent possible. "We expect continued growth in our services as we become better known."