Claims of racial discrimination in both employment and services have more than doubled in the first nine months of this year, new figures reveal.
The figures from the Equality Tribunal also show that the number of Travellers claiming discrimination has fallen by a third.
The figures show an increase in the number of employment discrimination claims but a decrease in those claiming discrimination in service-provision.
There has been an increase in the number of cases resolved through mediation, rising to 40 from 23 in the same period last year. The overall number of individual claims fell by 13 per cent, from 957 to 836.
The biggest increase was in the employment discrimination area, where discrimination based on gender continued to dominate.
Out of a total of 255 cases (up from 205 on the same period last year) 119 related to gender. This was almost a doubling since last year, when there were 60 such cases.
The next largest group to report employment discrimination were members of ethnic minorities, with claims based on racial discrimination more than doubling to 51, compared with 23 for the same period last year. Disabled people claiming discrimination fell from 33 to 25.
The most dramatic trend in the figures for claims under the Equal Status Act (which outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods and services) was in the number of Travellers making claims. This fell from 573 in the first nine months of 2002 to 383 for the same period this year.
The main target of such claims since the enactment of the Equal Status Act has been licensed premises, and the figures show a corresponding fall in these claims, from 641 in the first nine months of 2002 to 420 in the first nine months of 2003.
However, complaints against licensed premises, and complaints by members of the Travelling community, still continue to dominate all claims under the Equal Status Act. Traveller complaints amount to two-thirds of all 581 complaints under this Act, while complaints against licensed premises account for 72 per cent of the total.
The figures also show a fall in the number of successful cases taken under the Equal Status Act. In the first nine months of 2002 63 per cent of the 99 complaints decided were upheld, but this fell to 42 per cent of the same number of complaints decided so far this year.
This is reflected in the amount of money awarded in compensation.
This totalled €100,668 so far this year, compared with €184,120 in the same period last year; €75,500 of this was awarded in employment cases, and €25,168 in equal status cases.The Equality Tribunal was established to deal with claims of alleged discrimination under the Employment Equality Act of 1998 and the Equal Status Act of 2000.
The Employment Equality Act makes it illegal to discriminate on nine grounds: gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, race, age, disability and membership of the Traveller community. Discrimination is outlawed by the Equal Status Act in the provision of goods and services, accommodation, education, access to public services and access to hotels, restaurants and pubs.