Ms Jane O'Sullivan:

That ties into what Ms Heavey said about there being no legal aid available to people in these cases. One of our recommendations around the expansion and reform of the civil legal aid scheme is that the Legal Aid Board would have an outreach function. There is no point in having all of these laws if nobody knows about them and people cannot access them.

One issue we see with the Equal Status Acts is that the deadlines are unmanageable for people. A notification must be submitted within a couple of months of an incident happening and then the time limit for lodging a complaint is six months from the time of the incident. That is a very short period. Another issue in these cases is that it is not the case that when the person arrives in the WRC the other side does not have legal representation. It is often the case that the complainant is trying to represent himself or herself but is sitting at a table opposite two barristers and two solicitors acting for the other side, whether a landlord, the State or whoever else it might be. It is very unequal in that regard. In these cases, people often have to make written submissions in advance. We see lots of barriers there. Reforms of the equality legislation are key here. I will pass over to one of my colleagues because we all have a lot to say on this issue.