Ms Rebecca Gorman:

I will, I hope with the support of our legal witnesses. Allowing the ground to be specifically defined and having a broad definition is absolutely necessary to protect people, but we also need to allow for situation-specific analysis. Allowing the courts to define and see their cases is how things are determined and how case law is built over time. Having the definition is important. The other grounds in our equality legislation can also be seen as quite broad, but the courts have been able to work within those definitions and tease out where discrimination is taking place or not.

In the case of accents, it is quite clear that people with accents from certain areas, particularly inner-city Dublin, are treated extremely differently. We can all witness that. Allowing the courts to do the situation-specific analysis is important, as is the case with the other grounds. Perhaps the FLAC representatives will respond as well.