A public consultation process taking place as part of a review of equality legislation has been extended by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman (pictured).

The minister said that the decision to extend the consultation period was made due to requests from stakeholders. The new deadline for submissions is 5pm on 29 November.

The review covers the Equal Status Acts 2000-2018 and the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015.

‘Broad’ scope of review

The department had sought views on a range of issues including:

• The functioning of the acts, and their effectiveness in combatting discrimination and promoting equality,
• Awareness of the legislation, and
• Whether there are obstacles to taking an action under the acts.

Submissions were also invited on the scope of the current definitions of the nine equality grounds – including the issue of whether new grounds should be added.

“The scope of the review is extremely broad, and I recognise that many stakeholders will wish to make detailed submissions,” said the minister.