Mr. Christopher Bowes:

FLAC is a member of the Add the 10th Alliance. We have been part of that campaign but we have also been part of a campaign for a broader review of the equality legislation as well. Going back to 2021, FLAC did a series of seminars on the issues with the legislation, one of which focused explicitly on the need for a socioeconomic ground. Something we zeroed in on at that stage was trying to find the correct definition of that. In the years since, FLAC has done a lot of work to try to figure out the best way to define socioeconomic status and we have landed on a fairly succinct definition in our submission. We think the Senator's Private Members' Bill from 2021 is the one that captures the definition best and is the most inclusive. It also provides clarity and accessibility for people in terms of being covered by the ground.

A big priority for us over recent years has been, and continues to be, ensuring that, in addition to being concerned with socioeconomic discrimination and individual incidents of such discrimination, the legislation is able to tackle socioeconomic inequality and the root causes of socioeconomic disadvantage, which the Senator has mentioned. Ms Barry went through a number of the key changes we believe need to be made in order to achieve that. I will not repeat the detail of them but a number of elements needs to be added into the general scheme. These include repeal of section 14 of the Equal Status Act, which pertains to discriminatory laws and their effects, and looking at the definition of functions to ensure that the performance of the functions of public bodies like An Garda Síochána and the Irish Prison Service is covered by the prohibition on discrimination and that people who experience discrimination in those contexts have recourse under the legislation.

Another thing to highlight is that we also talk about strengthening the public sector duty. The introduction of the socioeconomic ground will have the really positive knock-on effect of the public sector duty being engaged and there being an obligation on public bodies to consider equality in performing their functions. Socioeconomic disadvantage will be one of the protected grounds under the legislation so preventing socioeconomic disadvantage will become an element of that duty. All public bodies will have to have regard to it when carrying out their functions. In the submission, we outline a number of ways that duty could be strengthened. That is another way to address the more structural elements and forms of discrimination that all groups face, including on the basis of socioeconomic disadvantage.