The Equal Status Bill would do little to prevent certain forms of discrimination against Travellers and others, according to the director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
However, Mr Donncha O'Connell said that at least, at a purely symbolic level, there was now an express statutory recognition that society is diverse and that a pluralist response to this diversity cannot be taken for granted.
Mr O'Connell was addressing the opening session of the ICCL's conference on equality in Dublin Castle at the weekend. He said Section 15 of the Bill actually put a premium on the ignorant prediction by service-providers of a racist reaction by people other than those the Bill claimed to protect.
It allowed for discrimination if the person providing the goods or services thought doing so "would produce a substantial risk of criminal or disorderly conduct or behaviour or damage to property", presumably from other customers.
He said it was too convenient to use the Traveller community to avoid what were minimal obligations, not just to that community, but to the wider society in all its colour and diversity.
This could be dealt with by amendment at the Committee Stage of the Bill, he said.
A further amendment should define "services" to explicitly include public services provided by the State. "This is particularly critical for disabled people seeking `reasonable accommodation' in public services where the nominal costs issue does not provide as much of an excuse as it would if the service-provider was in the private sector."