Equality legislation is as clear as mud

Only days after receiving the President's signature, the Equal Status Bill has already prompted conflicting interpretations from lawyers concerning its affect on golf clubs. So, much clarification will be necessary before the Bill becomes law, probably in a few months.

Where golf clubs are concerned, the most interesting recent development was a Dail amendment which, in the view of one lawyer, effectively places the country's men-only clubs - Portmarnock and Royal Dublin - beyond the reach of the law. Meanwhile, the GUI are sending a circular this week to all affiliated clubs, enclosing copies of the relevant sections of the Bill.

They are also ready to supply clubs with a layman's guide to the legislation to offer some enlightenment on the various elements of the equality issue and to help clubs draft changes to their constitution, where necessary. As general secretary Seamus Smith explained: "This will be done with the help of our solicitors."

The amendment which may offer immunity to single-sex clubs changed Section 9, which now reads: ". . . a club shall not be considered to be a discriminating club by reason that: (a) if its principal purpose is to cater only for the needs of - (i) persons of a particular gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, disability, nationality or ethnic or national origin".

That would appear to be crystal clear: a club which caters for persons of a particular gender - which is the case with men-only or women-only clubs - shall not, under the new legislation, be considered to be a discriminating club. One lawyer who has studied the issue sees this as the correct interpretation. But the legislators think differently.

In the course of the Seanad debate on this particular amendment, it was pointed out that the change to Section 9 was made on the advice of the Attorney General. His concern was that the original draft did not offer sufficient protection to non-religious groups, such as the Freemasons.

The conclusion was that it would be extremely difficult to justify in law a refusal to renew the Freemasons' certificate of registration, based not on any drink-related ground, but on a refusal to admit women. The same logic could be applied to many other groups, such as lesbian and gay organisations, the Irish Countrywomen's Association and Travellers' groups who might well wish to exclude members of a particular category.

A spokesperson for the Equality Authority, however, emphasised that there could be no question of a single-gender golf club being exempted under this section. "It could not be said that a golf club existed to provide a gender-specific or religious-specific service," he said.

Meanwhile, the Portmarnock club called a general meeting of its members recently to acquaint them with the implications of the new legislation. And Royal Dublin's captain, Tadhg O'Sullivan, said: "We have discussed the matter at committee level and all I can say is that we will be taking legal advice."

The indications are that clubs, including those which have already conceded full equality to women, will welcome all the help they can get from the GUI, mainly because of the difficulties they are encountering. As anticipated, the main problems concern time on the tee at weekends and the extent of the "entrance fee" which women associates are expected to pay when moving to full-membership status.

Through bitter experience, clubs have found that a strong, effective management committee - on which both the male and female players are represented - is absolutely critical towards the smooth implementation of equality. Otherwise, decision-making can become chaotic, with concessions going to those shouting loudest.

In this context, a further amendment to Section 9 of the Bill points out that a club shall not be considered to be discriminating if it has different types of membership, access to which is not based on any discriminatory ground. In other words, full, five-day or associate memberships are fine, provided they are open to both men and women.

But the amendment goes on to say that a club is not discriminating if, "for the purpose of reducing or eliminating the effect of any rule or practice of the club (whether adopted before or after the commencement of this section) restricting access to particular types of membership to persons of a particular gender, it offers concessionary rates, fees or membership arrangements to persons who were or are disadvantaged by any such rule or practice".

Having read this several times, I still can't figure out what it's supposed to mean. Roll on the layman's language from the GUI.