A NAAS hotel has been ordered by Kildare Circuit Court to pay €250 each in compensation to five Traveller women against whom it had discriminated.
Judge Petria McDonnell overturned two District Court rulings that had found no prima facie evidence of discrimination existed when two separate cases came before two separate District Court judges. Costs of €1,300 were awarded against the complainants.
The incidents that gave rise to the complaints took place in March 2009. In the first incident a Traveller woman, Brigid O’Brien, attempted to attend a nightclub with a friend in the Osprey Hotel, Naas, on March 22nd. They were refused entry. When asked for a reason they were told: “You know the score. You’re not getting in.”
On the morning of March 24th a group of Traveller and settled women, who were part of a liaison group with the HSE on health matters for Travellers, went to the same hotel and ordered tea and scones. When the waiter was on his way to their table with the order he was recalled by a manager, who told the group they would not be served because of the incident two days earlier.
One of the settled women with the group objected and informed the Garda. She inquired why they were not being served, but did not receive an explanation she considered satisfactory. The women brought complaints about both incidents to the District Court.
Following the dismissal of the complaints in the District Court they appealed to the Circuit Court, represented by Ramona Quinn of the Irish Travellers Movement Law Centre and Eugenie Houston from the Bar Council’s voluntary assistance scheme. The hotel did not defend the case, and after hearing evidence, Judge McDonnell found the women had been discriminated against.
As well as compensation she awarded them costs of the District Court hearing and the appeal.