It might sound ridiculous today but, up to 30 years ago, women who were employed in the Irish civil service had to leave their jobs as soon as they got married.

Irish society has changed almost beyond recognition in the three decades since and such overt discrimination is no longer tolerated. It would be naive, however, to think that prejudice has disappeared.

The reality is that if you are foreign, old, disabled, a Traveller, pregnant or gay, you are still likely to face significant obstacles in the workplace.

Over the years, various pieces of equality legislation have been introduced to combat discrimination. In particular, the Employment Equality Act (1998) and the Equal Status Act (2000) forbid discrimination in the workplace and in other situations such as advertising and the supply of goods and services.

Under this legislation, discrimination is described as the treatment of a person in a less-favourable way than another person is, has been, or would be treated on any one of nine named grounds - gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, race, sexual orientation, religious belief and membership of the Traveller community.

The Equality Authority is at the forefront of the battle against discrimination. Established in 1999, the role of the authority is to inform people of their rights under the equality laws, to assist individuals who it deems to have valid complaints and to raise awareness of equality issues in general.

Last year it dealt with almost 11,000 queries relating to people's rights under the legislation and it also dealt with 1,284 individual cases of alleged discrimination.

As in previous years, the most common form of discrimination was on the basis of gender, which accounted for one-third of the cases investigated by the authority

"Despite three decades of legislation in that area, it still remains the highest ground in relation to casework under the Equality Act," says Mr Niall Crowley, chief executive of the Equality Authority.

One of the most prevalent examples of this type of discrimination was pregnancy-related dismissal, where women lost their jobs because they became pregnant. Recently, there have been a number of high-profile cases in which employers who engaged in such practices were fined and Mr Crowley says he hopes that these will act as a deterrent to this type of discrimination.

The authority's annual report for 2002 also shows that discrimination on the basis of race has become a serious issue. The casework in this area has almost tripled over the past two years, according to Mr Crowley.

There are significant levels of discrimination too against Travellers and people with disabilities.

"What we are finding under both those grounds are situations where people hide their identity as a person with a disability or as a Traveller and then have found that, once they were known to have a disability or were known to be a Traveller, they ended up being dismissed," he says.

According to Mr Crowley, creating an awareness of rights is one of the best ways of combating discrimination in the workplace. To do this, his organisation is involved in a number of initiatives involving trade unions and employers, such as the Anti-Racist Workplace Week, which are aimed at creating a culture of equality.

"The picture that emerges there is much more positive in that you will find a lot of employers and a lot of trade unions very interested in trying to get it right, very interested in looking to new policies and new practices and new strategies to be more effective in the workplace," he says.

"I think it is there that we have cause for optimism. There is a strong constituency out there who are looking for assistance to prevent discrimination and, better still, to proactively pursue equality."

The nature of the equality legislation itself is one of the problems.

"Equality law is quite complex and difficult to understand in detail," according to Mr Peter Flood, IBEC's assistant director, social policy.

While high-level managers may have a good grasp of equality laws, it is often the case that lower-level line managers or supervisors might not be as aware of discrimination in the workplace, he says.

To deal with this, IBEC provides a number of services for its members, including advice on the law in relation to equality issues, training and, in some cases, representation in equality cases.

"The awareness has increased somewhat but there is still a lot of work to be done," says Mr Flood.

In its diversity programme, introduced about two years ago, Intel Ireland has taken a proactive approach to the issue of equality and diversity in the workplace. According to the diversity programme manager, Mr Liam Flynn, the initiative is aimed at building an understanding of diversity within the organisation.

"Broadly speaking, it is encouraging people to understand that if you treat people with respect and dignity, you can help to create a more positive work environment for everybody, where people feel respected for the work that they do and the benefit that they bring to the company," he explains.

The programme is built around training and awareness programmes for staff and management. Through these, the company hopes to enable its staff to become conscious of behaviour that may have the effect of excluding or discriminating against others. Part of this involves educating management and staff about equality legislation as it applies to Ireland.

Because Intel is a multinational organisation, employees tend to work regularly with colleagues elsewhere in the world. This means that the ability to interact with people from other cultural backgrounds is very important.

Similarly, the increasing multiculturalism of Irish society means that Intel's Irish facility would have hired people from 16 different countries over the past two years, according to Mr Flynn.

"We are, in many respects, a microcosm of Ireland. The demographics as a society have changed considerably over the last four to five years and we are no different.

"I think that's probably reflected in the fact that we have hired from a broad range of countries in the last two to three years," he says.

Last week, Intel was named the winner of the European Union diversity in the workplace award 2003 in recognition of its efforts in this area.

To date, about 50 per cent of the company's workforce in the Republic has attended some form of diversity training and Mr Flynn expects that the remainder will have attended by the end of the year.

"Our philosophy is we hire an individual based on their own unique skill sets or competency. Where diversity kicks in is that we are seeking to have an open work environment for all employees so that people understand difference and they are coming into a work environment that is open," he says.