The latest figures from the Equality Tribunal show a continuing fall in the number of complaints from members of the Travelling community, while complaints of discrimination on age grounds grew.
The total number of complaints fell by 261, which was accounted for by the drop in complaints against licensed premises from 420 to 38. The changing picture is partly due to the fact that since last year complaints against licensed premises must be heard before a judge at the appropriate licensing court.
The tribunal issued its figures for the first nine months of 2004 yesterday. It also marked the fifth anniversary of its establishment in October 1999.
There has been an enormous growth in the work of the tribunal since then, according to its director, Ms Melanie Pine.
"So far this year, we have received almost four times the number of complaints we had in the whole of 2000 and we have produced more than four times the number of decisions or mediated agreements," she said.
This year's figures show the number of complaints about discrimination in employment remaining steady, with 255 in the first nine months of last year, and 256 in the same period this year. They show an increase in the number resolved through mediation, from 55 to 67 per cent.
However, the grounds on which people complained shifted over the year. While gender was the largest single category of complaint last year, accounting for 85 of the total, this fell by over half this year, to 37 complaints, and was overtaken by complaints on the grounds of race (49 complaints) and age (41 complaints).
The age ground had almost doubled since last year. A large group, 69 cases in all, complained on multiple grounds.
There was a dramatic fall, from 581 to 327, in the number of cases under the Equal Status Act, which prohibits discrimination in the provision of goods and services.
Almost 100 of these are accounted for by a drop in complaints from members of the Traveller community from 283 to 185 and from those who complained on multiple grounds, which often includes complaints of discrimination against Travellers. Multiple ground complaints fell from 181 to 38.
Claims of race discrimination in the provision of goods and services also fell last year, from 33 to 19, while there was an increase in complaints on the ground of age discrimination.
The removal of complaints about licensed premises from the Equality Tribunal accounts for the drop in the complaints under the Equal Status Act.