The chief executive of the Equality Authority, Mr Niall Crowley, has said that the solution to discrimination against Travellers by some publicans is not specific Traveller-friendly pubs, but ensuring that all pubs are equality-friendly.
Mr Crowley was commenting yesterday on reports that the owner of a chain of Cork pubs, Mr Tom Scriven, had planned to set up a specific Traveller-friendly pub but had dropped the idea following objections from the Travellers Visibility Group.
"The proposal as I understand it was for a Traveller-friendly pub, not a Traveller-exclusive pub, but we feel that setting up one Traveller-friendly pub isn't the way to resolve this problem. We would like to see all pubs equality-friendly," said Mr Crowley.
"We would much prefer to see all publicans equality-friendly, where they would have equality policies, staff would be trained and familiar with equality legislation and a welcome would be communicated to all people.
"That obviously would be good for members of the Travelling community who are discriminated against in terms of not being admitted to pubs, but we also believe that it would be good for business," he said.
However, although Mr Scriven has abandoned plans to build a Traveller-friendly pub, he still defended the idea on the grounds that he believed it would represent a first step towards integrating Travellers into the community while also being a sound business proposal.
"Of course, in an ideal world, it would be great if all pubs were Traveller-friendly, but let's be realistic about this, they're not, and my idea was that if there was a pub where Travellers went and behaved themselves, it wouldn't be long before others sprang up," he said.
"My motivation in all this was not philanthropic, but economic. My business is to sell beer, and we saw an opening in the market."
Mr Scriven said the idea came about when 200 Travellers turned up at one of his pubs in Cork city for a concert by the American Drifters last November, and he began thinking about the business opportunities that presented.
He and his brother, who run nine pubs in Cork city and county under the Rebel Bar Group banner, contacted the Traveller Visibility Group to try and get information on where the greatest concentrations of Travellers in Cork were, but the group opposed the move.
"We were stunned because we thought they would be very supportive," said Mr Scriven, adding that he also runs a gay-friendly pub which has proved highly successful and he could not see why a Traveller-friendly pub would not help build bridges with the settled community.
A spokesman for the Travellers Visibility Group , Mr Dave McCarthy, told the Irish Examiner that they were opposed to the idea of opening a pub specifically for Travellers as they believed it would widen the divide between Travellers and the settled community.