Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I am not altering the ground rules. It will still be compensatable discriminatory behaviour to refuse entry for a prohibited reason.

Furthermore, we are including a remedy in this provision whereby, in addition to paying compensation, if it is a gross case, the District Court can order closure to teach a lesson to someone who does not allow a black person into their pub on arbitrary grounds. A temporary closure order can be issued in order that the publican does not do so again. Furthermore, the District Court can rule that if it happens again, the licence may be lost completely. This is by no means a toothless jurisdiction being conferred on the District Court; it is tougher than anything the ODEI tribunal can do.

To those who say the ordinary person may find it embarrassing to go to the District Court, in addition to having access to the court via the clerk if one has no representative, the Equality Authority is being given the statutory function to assist people who want to bring claims of this kind in an amicus curiae role.

This is not one way traffic. It is not the great victory for recalcitrant publicans which people are claiming. This is a decision to put those closely related, interconnected decisions into one single venue where people can decide the rights and wrongs of a decision – before this provision, if one made a decision one way, it exposed one to one remedy, while another exposed one to another legal consequence. In this venue there are people who assess others' credibility day in, day out in every other aspect of their lives, from drink driving to prosecutions and licensing.