Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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42. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views on recent publications by the Workplace Relations Commission regarding housing assistance grant cases (details supplied). [38306/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an independent, statutory body which was established on 1st October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015. The WRC’s core services include the provision of adjudication on employment and equality complaints, early resolution, mediation, conciliation, facilitation and advisory services, the monitoring of employment conditions to ensure the compliance and enforcement of employment rights legislation, the provision of information, and the processing of employment agency and protection of young persons (employment) licences.

The WRC is independent in the exercise of its quasi-judicial function and I as Minister have no direct involvement in its day to day operations.

The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015, prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods and services, the provision of accommodation and access to education, on any of nine grounds. The Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015 inserted a new ground in the provision of accommodation only; the “housing assistance” ground. Since 2015, the law has outlawed discrimination on the housing assistance ground at all stages in the provision of rental accommodation - in advertising and making offers of new tenancies, in bringing existing tenancies to an end and in the treatment of tenants during the term of an existing tenancy.

The WRC plays a critically important role for persons who want to make a complaint about any discrimination, for example discrimination by landlords on the basis of being in receipt of a Housing Assistance Payment. Making a complaint is free and can be done on line, and both sides can expect the WRC to give them both a hearing and a decision promptly.

I understand that equal status complaints accounted for almost 5% of all complaints made to the WRC. It is expected that this pattern will continue into the future.