Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

If Senator Quinn reads amendment No. 4, he will find that much of what he said is now irrelevant. I signalled on Second Stage my intention to bring forward this amendment to section 3(a) to ensure that the limited exclusion from what is defined as an employee for the purposes of the Employment Equality Act is further confirmed. The definition of employee in section 2 of the 1998 Act is being amended in section 3(a) of this Bill to include members and former members of regulatory bodies and to exclude people employed in another person's home to provide personal services to persons living in that home where they affect private or family life. This exclusion, which replaces more broadly based exclusions in the Employment Equality Act, is intended to strike a balance between the equal right of a person to private and family life and to equal treatment. For this reason, I propose to further qualify the exclusion to clarify that it applies only in so far as access to employment is concerned. Once in employment, this provision will not apply and any such person concerned, whether he be a gay butler or whatever, will be fully protected by the provisions of the Act.

Senator Quinn's amendment proposes the deletion, from the definition of employee for the purposes of the Act of 1998, of the exclusion in respect of persons employed in another person's home to provide personal services to persons living in that home where they affect private or family life. In my amendment to this proviso, which further qualifies the exclusion to clarify that it applies only in so far as access to employment is concerned, I have outlined the reasons that this provision is appropriate. The directives recognise and provide for the need to permit differences of treatment based on a characteristic related to any of the discriminatory grounds where, by reason of the nature of the particular occupational activities concerned or of the context in which they are carried on, such a characteristic constitutes a genuine and determining occupational requirement, provided that the objective is legitimate and the requirement is proportionate. General application of this principle is reflected in the new provisions proposed in respect of sections 25 and 37 of the Employment Equality Act, provided under sections 16 and 25 of the Equality Bill.

The Employment Equality Act also provides for exclusions in respect of services of a personal nature or employment for a private household. Under section 26(2) of the Act, discrimination in employment on the gender ground is permitted where it "consists of the performance of services of a personal nature, such as the care of an elderly or incapacitated person in that person's home, where the sex of the employee constitutes a determining factor". Section 37(5) provides a more general exclusion in the case of discriminatory grounds other than gender where the employment is "for the purpose of a private household", which is very wide. The new provision in section 3 will replace these exclusions with a much more limited mechanism which will now be further qualified by the amendment I have tabled.