The Equality Authority has been in existence for only five years, yet it seems to have been part of our advocacy and legal systems for much longer.
It is now widely understood that discriminatory advertisements, refusals to employ people because of their race, sexual orientation or family status, and the exclusion of people from social facilities because of their membership of the Travelling community or their disability are all illegal, though these things still occur. Knowledge of the terms of our equality legislation, widely acknowledged to be among the most comprehensive in Europe, is due in large part to the work of the Equality Authority.
Yet breaches of the law still occur with depressing frequency. The authority's annual report, published yesterday, gave a number of examples: advertisements for accommodation that state "no coloured"; the withdrawal of a job offer from a woman who admitted to being in a gay relationship; women being denied employment or promotion because they were pregnant, all feature.
Support for individual victims of discrimination is only one aspect of the authority's work, though one which often hits the headlines and helps to raise awareness of the need for anti-discrimination legislation. The organisation also works to assist employers and service-providers comply with the legislation. It recently took a landmark case against Portmarnock Golf Club claiming its men-only policy contravened equality legislation, which it lost. In launching the report yesterday, the Minister for Justice stressed the importance of litigation to test the reach of the legislation, and to enforce it.
Our equality legislation is comprehensive and was supplemented last year by the Equality Act, which incorporated a number of EU Directives into Irish law. Test cases highlight the need for an organisation that can both pursue the breaches and assist employers and service-providers to eliminate them. The report of the Equality Authority shows it is fulfilling its mandate here.
However, this could be undermined by restrictions on the resources available to our equality organisations, including the Equality Tribunal, which hears the cases, and which now reports a backlog of cases. Both it and the Equality Authority are also facing the challenge of decentralisation to centres outside Dublin. They have built up a specialised and highly dedicated staff in this new area of law and administration, few of whom have as yet indicated enthusiasm for the move. It would be shameful if their valuable work were to be put at risk either by lack of resources or by an ill-considered decentralisation strategy.