Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

In response to Senator Tuffy's amendment, this is dealt with essentially in section 69 of the 1998 legislation. To the best of my knowledge — I am open to correction — we have received no representations on it from any quarter. I will make further inquiries about it.

The purpose of Part 6 of the Employment Equality Act 1998 is to provide guidance to employers, particularly large enterprises, in taking a proactive approach to implementing equality in the workplace. Section 69 gives the Equality Authority particular powers, at its discretion, to invite a particular business, business group or sector to carry out an equality review or to prepare and implement an equality action plan. The Equality Authority may if it deems it appropriate, carry out an equality review and prepare an equality action plan in respect of large employers, those with more than 50 employees, or in respect of a particular business or a particular sector. The authority has specific enforcement powers with respect to such equality reviews and action plans which are set out in section 69 of the 1998 Act. The EU directives do not require the imposition of a duty on employers to prepare equality action plans. There is no intention in section 69 to coerce all employers to prepare equality action plans. This amendment would have such an effect and would also remove any legitimate defence an employer might have in answering employment discrimination claims before the equality tribunal and those are the reasons why I cannot accept the amendment.