Ms Maeve McElwee:

It can be more difficult. On the grounds of religion or Traveller status, people will declare these are their religious beliefs or their Traveller background status, if that is the case. Equally they do not need to declare this until such time as any issue comes up, but in the determination of any discrimination people must put forward some ground that they have been discriminated against in this way because they have declared their religious affiliation or Traveller status, in which case there is evidence and it can be determined whether the people are of the religion they say they are or that they are a member of the Traveller community. It is more clearly defined. The question of whether someone has a socioeconomic status based on his or her level or source of income is much more difficult to determine. An employer will have no knowledge of this and cannot ask a person to produce evidence of his or her bank account or from where a person's sources of income come.