The Add the 10th Alliance has been busy into 2025, with several activities taking place across the Dáil and Seanad to introduce socio-economic disadvantage as a tenth ground in our equality legislation.
Seanad Debate Takes Place
The INOU, as part of the Alliance, supported a Bill brought by Senator Chris Andrews to introduce the 10th ground into our legislation. Unfortunately, the Bill was delayed by 12 months by Government. We were delighted, however, to see the strong cross-party engagement on the Bill and the general acceptance that this ground in some form should be included in our laws.
Joint Oireachtas Committee
In July, the Alliance has been invited to address the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Equality as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny process of the draft Equality Bill. The Bill in its current form does not include socio-economic disadvantage, so the focus of our submission will be to advocate for its inclusion in the final Acts. Part of the process to include this ground is to pass the new “SME test”, where an assessment will take place on the impact of small and medium enterprises if this legislation is introduced. The Alliance is hoping that commercial interests does not come before people who would be protected from discrimination.
Focussing on Socio-Economic Disadvantage
The CSO has published the “Equality and Discrimination” survey in 2024, with survey question asking about the impact of socio-economic discrimination for people in Irish society. We were not surprised to see high levels of this discrimination experienced by people across many areas of their lives, from looking for work, to their experiences with An Garda Síochána. The survey shows the urgent need to address this issue and make a start to protect people who are vulnerable to this discrimination. Further information on this survey is available in this e-bulletin.
We are also delighted to welcome the Simon Community and Outhouse to the Add the 10th Alliance. This movement continues to build, and we are hopeful that positive changes will be coming in the next few months.