Pavee Point yesterday presented on proposed changes to Equality Legislation at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children and Equality.
Presenting to the Committee, Co-Director Martin Collins, welcomed the proposals while also outlining areas for improvement in the proposed legislation, telling the Committee, “Ireland requires equality legislation that fully meets European standards and our obligations under international human rights monitoring mechanisms.“
Changes to legislation pertaining to the Equal Status Act are generally welcomed as improvements – such as the inclusion of intersectional discrimination. While a proposed increase in time limits is proposed, Pavee Point believes time limits should be abolished.
Pavee Point also believes that civil legal aid should be extended to all complaints under Equality Legislation and that legislation could go further and be extended to functions of the State.
Pavee Point welcomes the expansion of positive action provisions in the Employment Equality Acts and joins with other civil society organisations to call for the expansion of the grounds covered by the legislation, including socioeconomic status and gender identity.
The current proposals have come about as the result of a review of equality legislation that was part of the previous Programme for Government and which was announced in 2021 by the then Equality Minister, Roderic O Gorman.
Our Submission to Review of Equality Legislation can be found here.
