A campaign of extortion and blackmail was being operated by a small number of Travellers who made complaints about publicans under equality legislation, the chief executive of the Vintners' Federation has said.
However, a representative of the Travelling community said the federation was trying to undermine and discredit the equality legislation which Travellers had fought long and hard for.
The federation's CEO, Mr Tadhg O'Sullivan, said that since equality legislation was introduced, about 700 complaints had been made by Travellers against publicans. He said one extended family of Travellers had made a large number of claims against a small number of pubs. He claimed a number of the complaints were made by the same groups of Travellers.
A huge number of the claims were bogus, Mr O'Sullivan said. "It is part of an orchestrated campaign of extortion and blackmail," he added.
The legislation had to be changed, he said. The State at the moment was awarding anything from a few hundred to a few thousand euros in compensation. There was also the cost to the publican of defending the claim.
"The compensation culture has to be abolished. If somebody is genuinely discriminated against and there is a penalty, it should be put into a fund; for instance, for the education of Traveller children, or donated to the Red Cross or Concern, but don't give it to the person making the complaint," he said.
The majority of the Travelling community who just wanted somewhere to live and to educate their children did not want the millstone around their neck of a handful of Travellers dragging them down, he said.
There had been 30 to 35 decisions so far and 700 complaints against publicans were in the pipeline, he said.
"There has to be a change in the law not just to protect the publican and society but the decent Traveller," he added.
Mr Martin Collins, a community worker at the Pavee Point Travellers' Centre, said the legislation was weighted in favour of the publicans.
"The Vintners' Federation is trying to undermine and discredit the equality legislation," Mr Collins said.
He said he was not convinced there was any substance to the allegations made by Mr O'Sullivan.
"But if he has that sort of information then he should report it to the appropriate authorities, the gardaí. He needs to be very sure about making such allegations," he said.
Mr Collins said: "If there is by any chance such behaviour by some Travellers then we want to say that the Travelling community does not condone it."
Referring to Mr O'Sullivan's suggestion that compensation should be given to a charity or someone else, Mr Collins said where there was a statute, people always got compensation. If they suffered loss, they should be compensated.
"They are very small sums of money in terms of what Travellers have had to endure. Publicans have nothing whatsoever to worry about if they stop discriminating," Mr Collins said.
The Equality Authority said from October 2000 to December 2001, there had been 630 cases brought by Travellers and 533 related to pubs, clubs and hotels. Of those, 142 cases had been closed.