Travellers raise concerns at quality case plans

THE Irish Traveller Movement has raised concerns about signals from the Government that it is considering change to the way equality cases involving publicans are handled.

Junior Justice Minister Willie O'Dea yesterday said he favoured letting the District Courts deal with these disputes His comments follow a report by the Commission on Liquor Licensing in December which suggested this course, or else setting up a system along the lines of the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Mr O'Dea said the District Court system already had a major responsibility for liquor licenses and there was a logic to giving them the role. He said publicans had lost faith in the fairness of the Equality Tribunal system and were loath to appeal cases to the Circuit Court because it was costly in proportion to awards made against them and generated adverse publicity.

David Joyce of the Irish Traveller Movement said the proposed change made no sense: "The minister's rationale for doing this is to promote consistency because it argues equality tribunals themselves have been inconsistent. This does not make sense when you consider that district courts themselves are not known for their own consistency."

Under current procedures, an equality tribunal hears complaints about alleged discrimination in the supply of goods and services and over 80% of these are taken against publicans who refuse entry and/or service to Travellers. A number of high-profile cases led to allegations from publicans' representatives that certain Travellers were using the system as an easy way of winning compensation. Travellers representatives replied the publicans were involved in a crude campaign of vilification.

Earlier yesterday Justice Minister Michael McDowell said he wanted to see a crackdown by gardaí on publicans who serve drink to people who are clearly very drunk. Mr McDowell said Chairman of the Commission on Liquor Licensing Gordon Holmes had pointed out to him that no publican in the history of the State had been prosecuted for this offence.

Mr McDowell also said he was looking forward to submissions in relation to a proposal that local councils be given a limited role in fixing pub opening hours.