Sir, - Equality legislation currently forbids discrimination in the job market on a range of issues. It is now the law of the land and as a consequence breaches of the law must attract sanctions including fines and reprimand.
In the specific case which seems to have attracted some very ill-tempered attention from your columnist Kevin Myers, the employer's requirement that the job applicant should be "young and dynamic" was found to be evidence of an intention to discriminate. Quite rightly this was the judgment of the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations. It should be pointed out that the Equality Authority may refer a case to the Director, but the Authority does not itself act as judge and jury.
We are fortunate that equality legislation has an active monitoring body in the Equality Authority, which can oversee effective enforcement. Readers of Brendan O'Connor (in the Sunday Independent) and Kevin Myers about this case may reasonably be led to reflect on the deeply rooted discriminatory views expressed by these writers. Of course they conceal a desire to continue to discriminate under the cloak of an appeal to "reason" or "common sense".
Our legislation is in fact sustained by logic and by evidence of discriminatory attitudes. Can legislation change attitudes? Not apparently by being enacted by the Dail and Senate. What it can do, and must do, is control behaviour. Messrs Myers and O'Connor may find that the painful consequences of disobeying the law will shortly change attitudes and tempt even their hearts and minds to follow a more benign view of themselves (and all of us) as ageing people. - Yours, etc.,
Sylvia Meehan, President, Irish Senior Citizens' Parliament, Fairview Strand, Dublin 3.