Time ripe to resolve pub ban row

IF Equality Minister Willie O'Dea is feeling totally frustrated over the entire controversy involving publicans and Travellers and the issue of equality, it would be hard to blame him.

When publicans threatened blanket bans on Travellers, which might have developed into a nationwide one, after a rumpus in Westport, the seriousness of which has been disputed, the minister intervened.

Effectively, he brokered a truce between both parties. His predecessor, John O'Donoghue, had already asked the Commission on Liquor Licensing to review the question of the legal limits on a publican's right to refuse admission and to serve alcohol.

It was agreed that the commission would look at the issue based on submissions from Traveller groups and to make recommendations for any legal changes it thought would be appropriate, if any.

It was understood that those submissions from the various Traveller groups would be received within six weeks, but that has not a happened.

Now Mr O'Dea has given them a week to meet a deadline and make their submissions, which seems reasonable. He has also intimated that he is not adverse to looking at the equality legislation. It would appear that the door on possible legislative changes, or at least consider them, was opened for the Travellers but they have yet to take a step over the threshold.

While they may say that they are still considering submissions to make, the reality is that so far they have not, which is rather unfortunate. One of their reasons may be that they would prefer any review to be undertaken by the Equality Authority, instead of the Commission on Liquor Licensing. Their perception may be that the latter is loaded in favour of representatives of the drinks industry, but it is much broader based than that.

Another complication is that the Equality Authority is refusing to co-operate with the commission's review, because it too believes the commission to be an inappropriate body to undertake it.

The entire issue of serving Travellers on licensed premises has been a matter of bitter contention for far too long. Vintners demand the right to control their premises and to refuse customers who are causing trouble. They also maintain many of them are being held to ransom by Travellers who just want to make money through the new equality legislation.

Traveller groups accuse some vintners of discriminating against them and the fact that cases are successful under the legislation proves their point.

According to the Equality Authority, any Traveller who is discriminated against can take a case to the Director of Equality Investigations, who has the power to make awards of up to 5,000.

Of the 670 claims referred last year under the Equal Status Act, 426 were against pubs or hotels and 81% of these related to Travellers.

That can be interpreted to suit either side of the argument. Either there are many Travellers who are exploiting the legislation, or that there are a lot of pubs and hotels discriminating against them.

What is certain, though, is that the longer this controversy is allowed to continue, the more bitter and entrenched both sides will become, and it is bad enough already. The Travellers have nothing to lose by making the submissions as the minister wants them to do and it could only help their own cause.