Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 3 Oct 2001

Vol. 541 No. 2

Written Answers. - Director of Equality Investigations.

Dick Spring

Ceist:

161 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the plans he has for the provision of additional resources for the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22030/01]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue):

The Office of the Director of Equality Investigations was established on 18 October 1999 on the implementation of the Employment Equality Act, 1998, to provide the main locus of redress of first instance in respect of discrimination in relation to employment, on grounds of gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community. The remit of the office was extended to the non-employment area in October 2000 on the implementation of the Equal Status Act, 2000. The office also has limited functions in relation to gender equality cases under the Pensions Act, 1990.

Prior to the establishment of the office, it was considered necessary to substantially increase the resources available to the redress mechanism for equality. It was decided, in consultation with the Department of Finance, that 27 posts, including five posts which transferred from the equality officer service of the Labour Relations Commission, would be adequate for the office to meet its statutory functions. Substantial financial resources have also been allocated to the office to enable it to discharge its statutory functions. The financial allocation for the office in 2001 is £1.335 million, comprising £930,000 in respect of pay and £405,000 for non-pay purposes.

The Deputy has referred to the large increase in referrals to the office in 2001 over 2000. It was anticipated that there would be an increase in the amount of cases referred as the new equality legislation becomes established. The total number of employment equality cases received by the office and equality officer service of the Labour Relations Commission – LRC – in 1999 was 59 and by the LRC in 1998 was 85. In 2000, the first full year of operation of the office, it received 139 cases under employment equality legislation and eight under the Equal Status Act, 2000. The office received 192 cases under employment equality legislation in the period January to August 2001 and 515 cases under the Equal Status Act in the same period.

In order to ensure that the office was in a position to deal with the anticipated increase in cases, the additional posts to deal with the Employment Equality Act and the Equal Status Act respectively were sanctioned on implementation of the relevant legislation rather than on a phased basis in accordance with the increased case load under the legislation. This enabled the office to devote considerable resources to training for members of staff in order to ensure that they are in a position to deal with the increasing number of cases being referred to the office and to provide a quality service to their customers. In 2000 a total of 550 days were spent in training. Direct training expenditure alone amounted to £34,000 which represents 6% of direct payroll costs.

The resources allocated to the office took into account the likelihood of a strong interest in the new grounds in the initial years of the office's operation. I do not plan, therefore, to increase the resources of the office in relation to its existing statutory functions.

Question No. 162 answered with Question No. 143.