Ireland's equality legislation prohibits discrimination in employment and in access to goods, services and facilities on nine discriminatory grounds: gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion and membership of the Irish Traveller community. In 2000, building on extensive provisions at EU level to promote equality between men and women, the EU adopted two new Equality Directives which prohibit discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in the workplace and, as far as racial and ethnic origin is concerned, in other aspects of daily life. A further new directive on equal treatment - prohibiting discrimination on grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief outside the employment sphere - is being negotiated. There is a clear need for policymakers to make use of sound evidence on equality and discrimination, in order to monitor and evaluate EU and national anti-discrimination laws, policies and programmes and to guide future policy and legal development.
This book will examine international experience in measuring equality and discrimination and will highlight good practice developed in Ireland to date. "Making Equality Count: Irish and International Approaches to Measuring Equality and Discrimination" is jointly organised by the Equality Authority, the Economic and Social Research Institute, the Central Statistics Office and the UCD Geary Institute and is co-funded under the EU PROGRESS Programme.