Ms Maeve McElwee:

The Chairman and I are not at odds in any way. I am not suggesting there is no discrimination in society or employment. As we stated, it is appropriate that there are some significant penalties for discrimination in the Employment Equality Act. Despite these, unfortunately and regrettably, discrimination continues. The challenge for the vast majority of employers who wish to comply with the legislation is that they need to be able to understand how they can possibly comply with something that has no limits or structures around it. How will we define these? It is not a case of not supporting a more equal and accessible workplace.