Groups representing people who face discrimination will today unite to call for the withdrawal of proposed legal changes which they claim will erode Ireland's equality laws.
Eleven groups are strongly opposed to plans to transfer the handling of discrimination cases involving licensed premises away from the Equality Tribunal to District Courts.
The move is part of planned changes to the application of the Equal Status Act which are contained in the Intoxicating Liquor Bill, details of which were published last week by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
The equality groups, including human rights and women's groups and organisations representing the disabled and Travellers, said a removal of the jurisdiction of the Equality Tribunal would represent "a serious diminution of the rights of redress for victims of discrimination".
The plan was "a major concession" to the licensed trade, which has consistently resisted the implementation of the Equal Status Act which outlaws discrimination in the marketplace, they claimed.
The groups also claim the move would set a precedent for any other interest group to successfully lobby to be exempted from equality laws.
More than half of the 1,307 cases taken to the Equality Tribunal last year under the Equal Status Act were brought by Travellers alleging discrimination by licensed premises.
The groups which are opposed to the minister's plans are: Age Action Ireland, Forum of People with Disabilities, Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), Irish Traveller Movement, Integrating Ireland, National Women's Council, National Youth Council of Ireland, One Parent Exchange and Network, Pavee Point and Treoir.
"We now have a situation where the Government is obliged to increase and strengthen Irish anti-discrimination law by July of this year under the EU Race Directive, and at the same time it is greatly reducing the protections we already have," said Ms Aisling Reidy of the ICCL.
"Not only is this contradictory, it potentially leaves Ireland open to litigation before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg."