Equality and Discrimination 2024

Introduction

In the 2024 survey, respondents aged 18 years and over were asked if they had experienced discrimination of any form in the two years prior to interview, in settings including the workplace/while looking for work, social settings such as pubs, restaurants, retail outlets, gyms, leisure centres etc., education, health, transport/other public services, and discrimination experienced in contact with An Garda Síochána.

Generally, discrimination occurs where one person is treated less favourably than another person in a comparable situation, because they differ under perceived grounds for discrimination including:

• Gender
• Civil/marital status
• Family/carer status such as pregnant or with children or other dependants
• Socio-economic background such as your address, accent, level of education, type of housing, employment status, or any other similar circumstance
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
• Age
• Disability (including physical, intellectual, learning, cognitive, emotional, or medical conditions)
• Race such as colour, nationality, ethnic, or national origins
• Membership of the Traveller community
• Criminal conviction
• Other

Please refer to the Background Notes for information on the protected grounds for discrimination under equality legislation.

Respondents were also asked for their sex at birth and a follow-on question asked for their gender. Their gender may be the same or different to their sex recorded at birth. Cisgender includes a man or woman whose gender corresponds with the sex recorded at their birth, while a transgender person includes a man or woman whose gender does not correspond with the sex recorded at their birth. A non-binary person is an individual who is not exclusively a man or a woman, for example, agender, gender fluid, gender diverse, Two-Spirit, etc.

Almost Half of Transgender/Non-Binary People Experienced Discrimination

At an overall level in 2024, over one in five (22%) respondents aged 18 years and over experienced discrimination of some form, in the previous two years.

Almost half (46%) of people who identified as transgender/non-binary had experienced discrimination of some form in the previous two years, double the prevalence amongst cisgender people (23%).

Respondents were also asked about their sexual orientation. Three in five (59%) respondents who identified as gay or lesbian said that they had experienced discrimination of some form in the previous two years, which was similar to those who identified as bisexual at 55%. By comparison, more than one in five (22%) who identified as heterosexual or straight cited experiencing discrimination in the two years previous to interview.

Analysis by ethnicity shows that half (49%) of people whose ethnic group/background was Black Irish/Black African/other Black background experienced discrimination of some form, compared with just one in five (19%) of people whose ethnicity was White Irish. Members of the Irish Traveller/Roma community also experienced high levels of discrimination (42%) (See Figure 2.1 and Table 2.1).

Younger People Experienced Most Discrimination

Analysis by age group shows that younger people experienced most discrimination. Three in ten people aged 18 to 34 years experienced discrimination in the two years prior to interview – 30% of people aged 18 to 24 years and 29% of people in the 25 to 34 years age group. By comparison, just 11% of older people aged 75 years and over, and 12% of respondents aged 65 to 74 years had experienced discrimination (See Figure 2.2 and Table 2.2).