An award of £300 has been ordered by the Director of Equality Investigations against a pub which discriminated against two Travellers. However, the Boathouse Pub in Portumna, Co Galway, was found not to operate an anti-Traveller policy generally.
This was the first judgment made by the office under the Equal Status Act 2000, which relates to discrimination in the provision of goods and services. It is also the first award to a member of the Travelling community for discrimination.
The case involved two brothers, Mr Michael Ward and Mr John Ward, and the Boathouse Pub owned by Mr Patrick Quigley. Although the pub was managed by his daughter, Deirdre, Mr Quigley was serving when they entered last October. He told them he would serve them one drink and then they would have to leave. He said that a close relative had been barred.
They asked a local garda to draw Mr Quigley's attention to the provisions of the equality legislation. The garda told them it was a civil matter and said they should contact a solicitor. They contacted the Office of Equality Investigations.
In response to the complaint, Mr Quigley said he regularly served Travellers, but he believed they had drink on them. They denied this, as one of them had had one drink in another pub and the other, who had travelled to meet him, had not had a drink. Further investigations by the equality officer discovered that the close relative had been barred by Ms Quigley.
However, the equality officer found that while it was justifiable under the legislation to refuse to serve a person where that would give rise to a substantial risk of criminal or disorderly conduct, there was no reason for thinking either of the Wards had engaged in such conduct.
In the case of Mr Michael Ward, Mr Quigley had never seen him before and it appeared the only reason he refused to serve him more than one drink was because he was in the company of Mr John Ward, whom he knew.
About 80 per cent of complaints to the Office of Equality Investigations under the Equal Status Act concern allegations of discrimination against Travellers. Welcoming the judgment, the Equality Authority said 59 per cent of its caseload concerned allegations of discrimination against Travellers.