The INOU has called for the significant gap in Ireland’s equality legislation to be addressed, the gap that leaves anyone who has experienced socio-economic discrimination unable to seek redress for experiences that can undermine a person’s confidence and self-worth.
This is a long-standing issue and ask.
For example, in 2004, 2010 and 2014, as part of the Quarterly Household Survey, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) produced an equality module. Respondents’ Principal Economic Status is amongst the data collected, respondents will identify themselves as at work or unemployed or a student or on home duties or retired or others. In the table ‘Persons who have experienced discrimination classified by employment status and nationality Q3 2014’ , the state wide figure was 12% across the three time periods, but for people who were unemployed the figures were much higher, at 29%, 22% and 23% respectively.
Then in July 2019, as part of the Labour Force Survey, the CSO published an equality and discrimination module. In the table ‘ Percentage of persons who experienced discrimination’ the state wide figure was 17.7%, while the figure for people who were unemployed was 30.2%. The CSO noted that “ Almost one in eight (11.8%) persons experienced discrimination when Accessing services , while nearly one in ten (9.4%) cited Workplace discrimination.” Again these figures were higher for people who were unemployed, with regard to ‘Workplace discrimination’, unemployed people had the highest percentage: 24.6. While for ‘Accessing Services’, 17.4% of unemployed people reported experiencing discrimination. Five other groups reported a higher percentage for accessing services, including n on-white ethnic backgrounds (23.1%); persons who identify as LGBTI+ (19.6%); non-Catholics (19.2%); persons aged 18 to 24 years (19.1%); and persons with a disability (18.3%).
In March, 2024 the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights published their concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Ireland under the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rigthts. On the issue of non-discrimination they stated that: Taking note of the comprehensive review process of the Equality Acts, the Committee remains concerned about the continued absence of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation in the State party. It is also concerned about the prevalence of socioeconomic, racial and gender inequalities and social stigma and discrimination against disadvantaged and marginalised groups (art. 2 (2)).
The Committee went on to recommend to Ireland that we:
- Adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that:
- Includes explicit references to all prohibited grounds of discrimination, including socioeconomic status;
- Includes definitions of direct, indirect, intersectional and multiple discrimination;
- Establishes a prohibition against discrimination in both the public and the private spheres;
- Establishes effective judicial and administrative mechanisms against discrimination, including by introducing provisions on reparations in discrimination cases;
- Take all measures necessary, including targeted special measures, to prevent and combat the persistent discrimination, racism and inequality faced by people of African descent, Traveller and Roma communities, migrants, persons with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, especially in the areas of decent work, social security, health care and services, adequate housing and education;
- Ensure that all equality strategies, policies and programs to combat discrimination faced by disadvantaged and marginalised individuals and groups are developed in partnership with those individuals and groups and receive sufficient financial, human, and technical resources, including through the effective application of the Public Sector Duty, and that their implementation is regularly monitored and evaluated by ensuring oversight by the relevant social partners;
- Refer to the Committee’s general comment No. 20 (2009) on non-discrimination in economic, social and cultural rights.
It is absolutely critical that Ireland finally addresses this gap in our equality legislation, that we do so as a matter of urgency, and give full effect to the ambition contained in Ireland’s Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025: to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive States in the EU .