The European Union has passed a range of directives prohibiting discrimination at work over the 40 or so years that Ireland has been a member and their transposition into domestic legislation has had a significant impact on workplaces across the State.

These vary from the nine discriminatory grounds outlawed under the Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2007 namely; gender, civil status, family status, age, disability, race, religious belief, sexual orientation and membership of the Travelling Community to the array of legislation that attempts to ensure that part-time, fixed-term and agency employees are not treated less favourably than their full time or permanent colleagues.

A critical point to understand in terms of presenting or defending a discrimination case is that the