Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Adding a new ground to the equality legislation and a new protected characteristic in terms of forbidding socioeconomic discrimination is something about which I feel passionately and which the Government committed to examining in the programme for Government. It has been the subject of Private Member's legislation from several parties in this House and the previous Dáil. I will be bringing proposals forward on that ground in terms of the legislative proposals. It is timely. All Deputies have been contacted by people who cannot put their home address down because their estate has a bad reputation, for whatever reason, and are worried their curriculum vitae would go to the bottom of the pile, or by people who, on walking into a club are told, "No, not tonight, lads", because of their accent. That is not acceptable, just as it is unacceptable to refuse a person access to a club because he or she is gay or black. That is why it is important we advance this ground.

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