In a half-year report to be published today the Equality Tribunal has reported a sharp drop in the number of claims referred to it.
The number referred dropped by almost half in the first six months of the year, compared to the same period in 2003. The fall is largely due to the decision to transfer jurisdiction for claims involving licensed premises from the tribunal to the courts. Claimants alleging discrimination by a pub or registered club after September 29th last year must now take their cases to the District Court.
As a result, only 36 complaints relating to licensed premises were referred to the tribunal in the first half of this year, compared to 325 in the first six months of 2003.
The director of the tribunal, Ms Melanie Pine, said the reduced number of cases would help it to tackle a backlog built up over the past couple of years.
Increased use of mediation, she said, was also facilitating addressing of the backlog. The tribunal has a new policy of referring all claims to mediation unless one party formally objects. As a result of this, 127 claims were referred in the first six months of this year, compared to 60 in the opening half of last year. Just over three-quarters of the cases referred to mediation this year were successfully resolved, an improvement on the 55 per cent figure for the same period last year.
The tribunal is an independent body which adjudicates on claims of discrimination under the Employment Equality, Pensions and Equal Status Acts.
The total number of claims referred dropped from 604 in the first half of last year to 305 in 2004. The number of cases alleging discrimination in employment, however, was broadly the same.
Of the 138 employment cases, 30 alleged discrimination on the grounds of age, while 25 cited the ground of race. These were the biggest two categories under which complaints were made.
Although referrals dropped dramatically because of the transfer of jurisdiction relating to licensed premises, there was an increase in the number of complaints regarding other sectors.
Membership of the Traveller community continued to be the single biggest ground cited in complaints.
The tribunal published 94 decisions in the first half of the year, up from 63 in the same period in 2003. The complaints were successful in 41 per cent of this year's cases, compared to 28 per cent in 2003.
