Traveller barred from hotel wins €3k

A hotel has been ordered to pay €3,000 in compensation to a member of the Traveller community for the “humiliating” way that he and his family were refused admission to a hotel restaurant for a carvery lunch on the day of his daughter’s christening.

Adjudication officer at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Enda Murphy said he was making the award of €3,000 under the Equal Status Act “due to the seriousness of the discrimination and the humiliating effect it had on the man, due to the very public manner in which he was refused entrance to the hotel restaurant”.

The hotel refused entrance to the man on March 13, 2016, claiming at the WRC that patrons were required to pre-book their meals for the Sunday, as it was Mother’s Day.