Aosdána, the body established to honour those who have excelled in the arts, has been found to have discriminated against an artist on age grounds. Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent, reports.
Mr Sean Clifford (26) was awarded €2,500 by the Equality Tribunal in compensation for discrimination.
Those elected as members of Aosdána can receive an annual allowance as well as enjoying the honour of membership.
Mr Clifford had sought information on applying for membership of Aosdána and had been informed that he must be over 30 to be eligible. He took a complaint to the Equality Tribunal, which was supported by the Equality Authority.
Although Aosdána removed this lower age limit before the complaint was heard by the tribunal, it insisted that the Employment Equality Act did not apply to it. Section 13 of the Employment Equality Act prohibits discrimination by professional or trade organisations.
Aosdána also argued that the minimum age limit was designed to reflect the requirements of artistic experience, development, maturity and achievement.
The equality officer examined the organisational structure of Aosdána and noted that the roles it played went beyond an honours system in seeking to inform policy to benefit its members and Irish artists in general. The officer found that it was a body covered by the Act.
The equality officer also found that the application of an arbitrary age limit presupposed that artists younger than 30 would not possess the attributes of experience, development, maturity and achievement.
While this might be the case, it was discriminatory to assume that nobody under a specific age would possess such attributes.
Welcoming the decision, Mr Niall Crowley, chief executive of the Equality Authority, said it was important that Aosdána was found to be covered by the Employment Equality Act.
"This establishes a valuable precedent in interpreting the provisions of the Act as they relate to professional or trade organisations," he said.
"The debate on ageism has focused on the experience and situation of older people. This case breaks new ground in establishing the negative impact of ageism on younger people."