Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the members of the INOU and the Add the 10th campaign. I am not sure if Paul McKeon is in the Gallery. For as long as I have been in politics, he has been talking to me about this issue. He really has been pushing it home. That the visitors in the Gallery are here is a genuine example of civic engagement.

The purpose of the Bill is to expand the protections of both Acts to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disadvantaged socioeconomic status and to ensure persons can no longer be discriminated against because they come from a disadvantaged socioeconomic area or background. This is a really insidious form of discrimination. Members on both sides have highlighted cases of where people have felt discriminated against, but in some of the community sector work I have done in the north inner city to get young people back into education or the employment market, I found that the discrimination was so insidious that it was almost felt in people’s bones or being. It prohibits people from even applying for certain jobs and from putting their address on CVs. It creates a scenario in the culture that leads people to believe they do not belong in certain spaces. The Add the 10th campaign has placed this on the political agenda. Passing the Bill would send out a message that the discrimination is no longer acceptable.

The Bill’s proposal is in no way new. It has been argued for since the introduction of the Employment Equality Act in 1998. In that legislation, the response to the demand for more than nine grounds was made by the then Minister by including a review clause requiring the Minister to assess, within two years, the need to add further grounds. The pressure that existed already showed there was insufficiently comprehensive legislation and that there was a need to go further. As part of the review in 2002, the former Equality Authority proposed the introduction of a socioeconomic status ground, highlighting high levels of socioeconomic discrimination in the labour market. In response to the proposal from the former Equality Authority, a research report commissioned by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in 2004 suggested a socioeconomic status ground would serve the objectives underpinning the equality legislation. Importantly, the report also pointed out that it would allow a more sophisticated intersectional approach to its implementation.

As has already been said, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission’s 2015 submission to the UN highlighted the need to prohibit discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic status in equality legislation. The UN committee noted with regret that Irish legislation does not protect against discrimination on all grounds of discrimination prohibited by UN human rights covenants. At the moment, there is another review of the equality legislation. It will examine the introduction of socioeconomic grounds for discrimination. To date, however, we still have no guarantee or indication that this review will not fade away like all the others, without action to include the ground in question.

I find it difficult to understand the Minister’s delaying of the Bill for 18 months. It is very ambitious given the time we may have left in this Chamber. If there is a Second Reading of the Bill in 18 months, the Government’s remaining term may not be long enough to bring it to a conclusion. Other postponed Bills have had much shorter timeframes. We can be more rapid in dealing with this legislation. I understand the Government is introducing legislation itself. I would certainly like to work in collaboration with the Minister across the Chamber but it would be a fantastic achievement to get this Bill over the line. The Minister will have a lot of support. I thank Deputies Wynne and Andrews for introducing the Bill. We will certainly be supporting it.

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