Equality campaigners wants reform of liquor laws to stop discrimination at pub and club doors
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The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has called for an urgent overhaul of liquor licensing laws, claiming the current laws disproportionately and significantly impact minority groups such as disabled people and Traveller communities.
The IHREC has conducted a review of Section 19 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003, which sends allegations of discrimination on entry to pubs and nightclubs to the district court for resolution.
The IHREC says this “makes the enforcement of important rights excessively difficult and in some cases virtually impossible”, as complainants have to hire lawyers and proceed through the courts to get redress.
The commission recommends that there should be “no delay” in transferring jurisdiction for these cases to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), which deals with the vast majority of discrimination issues, and whose predecessor (the Equality Tribunal) used to deal with discrimination claims in respect of licensed premises.
“In our view there is no justifiable reason for a different legal approach for being discriminated against at the door of a pub, restaurant or club than in any other type of shop or service. This is a systemic equality issue that needs to be remedied for the sake of equal access to justice. All victims of discrimination deserve the same access to efficient and clear redress mechanisms,” said Sinéad Gibney, chief commissioner of the IHREC.
The IHREC urged that if jurisdiction could not be expediently transferred from the district court to the WRC, that the burden of proof in the district court should be “immediately” reversed, so there is a presumption that prohibited conduct such as discrimination has occurred, and that discretion to hear certain cases in private be granted to district court proceedings under the ILA 2003.
Flac (Free Legal Advice Centres) welcomed the IHREC’s recommendation, saying the 2003 act had “stemmed the flow of discrimination cases” against licensed premises by erecting significant procedural, practical and legal obstacles.
“Of the drastically reduced number of discrimination cases taken to the district court, the majority were taken by Travellers and only a tiny number of those cases resulted in an order for compensation,” said FLAC Traveller Legal Service solicitor Christopher McCann.
“The 2003 act protects a category of respondents from responsibility for unacceptable discrimination to the detriment of some of the State’s most vulnerable communities. It must be urgently repealed. If action is not taken by the Government on foot of this report, we note that IHREC have the power to take own-name proceedings to challenge this regressive law,” he added.