The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines gender as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(a) that one is male and the other is female (the “gender ground”)
The ground of gender in the Irish equality legislation primarily reflects EU sex discrimination law. The EU caselaw and its reflection in the recitals of the Recast Gender Directive recognise that transgender people may experience discrimination on the ground of sex – specifically with reference to ‘gender reassignment’ or transition. However, EU equality law does not define sex as referring to male/female.
Irish case law on this is based on EU law as domestic legislation does not treat these issues. In practice, therefore, the ground of gender is interpreted by the courts and the Workplace Relations Commission to include transgender persons, as required under the caselaw of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).
The National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy includes an action to review this legislation to ensure that transgender, non-conforming and intersex people have explicit protection within the equality grounds. The new Programme for Government has a similar commitment. Such changes will not necessarily change the definition of sex in law or for the purposes of data collection. In the UK for example, an additional ground (there called ‘gender reassignment’), has been added to equality legislation alongside sex and the other grounds.
Data on gender was contained in 68 of the 107 data sets, making it the most commonly collected dimension of equality.
A detailed breakdown of the gender variable was provided for 25 of the 68 data sets with 23 of these providing a break down of Male/Female/Prefer not to say. Just two data sets had other options – one contained ‘Transgender and Non-conforming’ as an option while the other contained an ‘Other gender’ option.
The data sets which included gender covered all eight of the themes mentioned above in Table 2, with 20 in Education & Health and more than 15 in each of Jobs & Earnings and in Living Standards.
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines age as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(f) subject to subsection (3), that they are of different ages (the “age ground”)
(3) Treating a person who has not attained the age of 18 years less favourably or more favourably than another, whatever that other person's age, shall not be regarded as discrimination on the age ground.
Age is one of the most frequently collected dimensions and was present in 65 data sets but a variety of age groups were used.
A detailed breakdown of the age variable was provided in 26 data sets. Age was collected in a continuous way in 21 data sets (either as date of birth or years of age), which means any age group can be analysed. The remaining five data sets gathered data in age groupings. This impacts on the ability to carry out meaningful analysis on people of different ages. In most cases these were gathered in age groups of about ten years (e.g. 10-19, 20-29). Poor granularity for age is particularly evident amongst older and sometimes younger age groups. Of the five data sets collecting age groupings, one data set has its eldest grouping as “55+”, three have “60+” and two have “65+”, while three have young people grouped as “Under 18”, “Under 25” and “15-24”.
The data sets which included age covered all eight of the themes mentioned above in Table 2, with most covering Education and Health (20 or more data sets), followed by Jobs & Earnings and Living Standards (more than 15 data sets).
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines Civil status as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(b) that they are of different civil status (the “civil status ground”)
(‘civil status’ means being single, married, separated, divorced, widowed, in a civil partnership within the meaning of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 or being a former civil partner in a civil partnership that has ended by death or been dissolved)
About one in four (23.4%) of the 107 audited data sets contain civil status, and of those 15 have also included a break down of the variable.
The data sets which included civil status covered all eight of the themes mentioned above in Table 2. Most were covering Health (11 data sets) and Education, Living Standards and Jobs & Earnings were all covered by eight data sets.
The level of detail collected for civil status is very good. Where the breakdown was visible, all the data sets with this variable have at least five levels of civil status (single, married, widowed, divorced, civil partnership), with some containing up to 15 options. Same sex marriage was included as an option in some cases.
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines family status as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(c) that one has family status and the other does not or that one has a different family status from the other (the “family status ground”)
Fifteen datasets, or 17.8% of all those audited, had an indicator for family status, with 9 providing a further breakdown of the family status variable. Most of the data sets have three main breakdowns of family status – lone parent, married parent or no children.
The data sets collected are across all eight of the themes mentioned above. Eight data sets were in the living standards theme while there were seven each in Education and Health.
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines disability as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(g) that one is a person with a disability and the other either is not or is a person with a different disability (the “disability ground”)
Just under a quarter (22.4%) of the data sets audited included a marker on disability. Eight of these provided a breakdown of the variable but it varied widely. In some cases, the severity of a disability is collected, in others the category/type of disability is collected and in some cases it is a yes/no question.
Note that a variable for disability is not always included in health-related data sets but patient histories, or other notes on the system, may record disability.
The data sets collected are across all eight of the themes mentioned above. Education, and Jobs and earnings had most with eight data sets each, with Health and Living Standards covering seven data sets each.
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines sexual orientation as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(d) that they are of different sexual orientation (the “sexual orientation ground”)
Sexual orientation is not asked in any of the data sets acquired in the audit. It can be deduced in some cases where same sex marriage is included in a question on marriage.
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines race as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(h) that they are of different race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins (the “ground of race”)
Race was included in only two data sets – the Census of Population from the CSO and the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) data set. The other 24 cases in the audit which are marked as covering race actually contained nationality or ethnicity, which is not the same as race, but is included in the Equal Status Acts.
The data sets collected are across all eight of the themes mentioned above. The themes of Education, Jobs & Earnings and Living Standards had more than ten data sets each.
In the case of nationality, all data sets were free text. For race, there are at least seven options in the breakdown in each case. In some of the data sets, Ethnicity or Country of Birth are collected. These usually have options for the most frequent countries/ethnicities and a free text option is also available.
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines religion as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(e) that one has a different religious belief from the other, or that one has a religious belief and the other has not (the “religion ground”)
Religion only appears in three data sets and these cover the themes Education & Skills, Health, Jobs & Earnings, Living Standards and Personal Security.
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2015 defines the Traveller Community as:
(2) As between any two persons, the discriminatory grounds (and the descriptions of those grounds for the purposes of this Act) are:
(i) that one is a member of the Traveller community and the other is not (the “Traveller community ground”)
Membership of the Traveller Community appeared in 12 data sets, four of which were in the theme of Education and Skills. Seven of the eight themes were covered. Where it is included in a data set, it is either a yes/no question or included in a question on race or ethnicity.
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