Ms Maeve McElwee:

I wish to respond to those issues. On grounds and how we define them, let us take the example of mental health grounds. If somebody says that he or she has a mental health difficulty and asserts that he or she is being discriminated against on those grounds, it is open to the individual and the employer to ask for a qualified medical opinion, and when that has been determined, it allows us to proceed from there with some certainty around what we are dealing with. Looking at the example which Mr. Crowley has given of a male and a female and an allegation of discrimination in terms of access to a particular role, the employer will be familiar with the fact that the female has a female background and that may be an area of discrimination.

It is for the employer to be able to demonstrate that, all else being equal, the appropriate candidate won the day on the basis of skills and ability. If either of two male or female colleagues were disputing an appointment on the basis that the decision not to appoint was taken based on his or her family background, socio-economic status or income, who will tell the employer at what point the income threshold becomes a disadvantage and against what comparator that disadvantage is to be weighed up? How would a person know this and if, for any reason, it was known, how would it be possible to demonstrate whether it had been used as a factor in a decision between two candidates competing for promotion in the same place of employment and in whom the employer has clearly invested? In addition, both candidates will have clearly met the criteria or threshold to allow them to apply for the promotion and both will, therefore, be valued employees. Again, this comes back to the other grounds for discrimination. We need some structure in terms of what level would be regarded as discriminatory in order that some kind of determination can be made. The problem we have with the socio-economic grounds is in determining who would set the bar and in what circumstances one would determine that a certain level of income places a person at a socio-economic disadvantage.