Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The Equality Authority is an independent statutory body and it is independent in the exercise of its statutory functions. It is not within my remit to run it on a day-to-day basis. The authority must take into account the views expressed by public representatives such as the Deputy, particularly given he raised them in the House. The Equality Authority could be called to one of the committees of the Oireachtas in order to answer questions in respect of this because it is required under the legislation to come before Dáil committees so I suggest that Deputy Shatter does that.

In respect of the reaction, it must be said that to our knowledge, only one negative comment has been communicated to the Equality Authority and this has been from a young person. All of the major NGOs in the area of older people were at the overall launch. For example, Age Action Ireland carried the poster on its website for several days before the launch and throughout the week of the campaign. Indeed, in a letter to The Irish Times on 26 May, Age Action Ireland referred to the current campaign as being "timely and badly needed", noting that "age discrimination is widespread across society". While Deputy Shatter may have a view on it and may be correct, there are others who feel the opposite to that.

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