Welcome to the Your Rights Service.
When you experience discrimination, you can do something about it.
The Your Rights Service is an information service run by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
We are here to give you information about your rights under equality and human rights law in Ireland.
We can show you some options you may have if you believe that you have experienced discrimination, or that your rights have been breached.
No.
The Your Rights Service can only provide you with information. We cannot give you legal advice or comment on any individual case.
This means that we can tell you what the law says, but we cannot tell you how the law applies to your situation, or what you should do next.
If you think you need legal advice, you should talk to a solicitor, who can advise you.
The information provided by the Your Rights Service, including the information on this website, is provided for information purposes only.
It does not constitute a legal analysis of any individual’s particular situation.
We try to ensure that the information we provide is accurate and up to date. However, it is not a legal interpretation of the law and should not be relied on as legal advice.
For any professional or legal advice, all individuals should consult a suitably qualified person.
Here you will find information about the laws that protect you against discrimination in Ireland.
We answer the following questions:
Discrimination is when someone treats you worse or ‘less favourably’ than another person is, has been, or would be treated, in a similar situation, because you fall under the ‘protected grounds’.
You can experience discrimination in four different ways:
Where someone treats you less favourably than another person in a similar situation because of a different personal characteristic or circumstance that falls under the protected grounds.
Where a seemingly neutral system or policy disadvantages you because of a personal characteristic or circumstance that falls under the protected grounds.
Where someone treats you less favourably than another person in a similar situation because someone has incorrectly assumed (‘imputed’) that you fall under the protected grounds.
Where someone treats you less favourably than another person in a similar situation because of your connection, relationship or association with someone who falls under the protected grounds.
Under Irish law, the protected grounds are:
If someone treats you less favourably because you are a different gender to someone else.
If someone treats you less favourably because you have a different civil status to someone else.
If someone treats you less favourably because you have a different family status to someone else.
(Note: some situations falling under this ground may also fall under the gender ground.)
If someone treats you less favourably because you have a different sexual orientation to someone else.
If someone treats you less favourably because you are older or younger than someone else and it is without a good reason (‘objective justification’).
(Note: this ground does not cover alleged discrimination against children in schools.)
If someone treats you less favourably because you have a different religion to someone else, or, for example, because you do not have a religion and someone else does.
If someone treats you less favourably because you are a member of the Traveller community and someone else is not.
If someone treats you less favourably because you have a different skin colour, nationality or ethnicity to someone else.
If someone treats you less favourably because you have a disability and someone else has a different disability or does not have a disability.
Under the disability ground, please also see information on disability and reasonable accommodation.
If someone treats you less favourably because you are receiving rent supplement, housing assistance payment (HAP), or another type of social welfare payment and someone else is not.
The main laws that protect you against discrimination are:
A Guide to the Employment Equality Acts
A Guide to the Equal Status Acts