Section 6(4) of the Employment Equality Act 1998, which came into operation on 18 October 1999, provides as follows:
The Minister shall review the operation of this Act, within two years of the coming into operation of this section, with a view to assessing whether there is a need to add to the discriminatory grounds set out in this section.
A similar provision was subsequently included in the Equal Status Act 2000.
As part of the review of the 1998 Act, a discussion paper was produced by my Department and a round table conference involving the social partners, relevant Departments, the Equality Authority, the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations and the Labour Court was held in September 2001.