Owners of pubs will not now impose the threatened national ban on serving Travellers following meetings yesterday between the Minister of State with responsibility for Equality, Mr Willie O'Dea, and groups representing vintners and Travellers.
The Government is to speed up work on a code of conduct for implementation of the controversial Equal Status Act as well as clarifying the provisions in the licensing laws which allow publicans to refuse service to individuals.
Both the Vintners' Federation of Ireland and the Irish Traveller Movement said yesterday that they were happy with the developments and would make submissions on both the code of conduct and an examination of the licensing laws.
The president of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, Mr Joe Browne, yesterday told the Minister that it would not be recommending a blanket ban on service to Travellers.
Mr O'Dea said that he expected publicans in Co Mayo to abide by the position expressed by the VFI.
The Minister held separate meetings yesterday with the vintners and Traveller groups in the wake of the recent controversy in Mayo which led to the banning of Travellers from pubs there and a threatened national prohibition. He said after the meeting that the VFI had agreed to participate in the work of the Equality Authority, which is drawing up a code of conduct for implementation of the Equal Status Act.
The VFI has said in the past that the Act makes it difficult for its members to expel "troublemakers" from their premises. It says that the legislation has led to a rash of damages claims from Travellers who were using it as a "gravy train" to win damages. The Irish Traveller Movement has rejected these claims, saying that the Act is working well to protect them from unfair discrimination.
Mr O'Dea said yesterday that the forthcoming code of practice should clarify the rights of publicans under the Act. He welcomed the VFI's decision to take part in preparing the code, a reversal of its previous position.
He also welcomed the agreement of the Irish Traveller Movement to make a submission on the issue of the right of publicans to refuse service. If liquor licensing legislation needed to be changed to clarify this, then he would look at it, he said.
The Minister also said that both sides had agreed to "refrain from using inflammatory language".
Mr Browne said that the VFI welcomed a statement by the Mayo Travellers' Support Group that it was fully supportive of publicans who treated people fairly. The group had stated: "We support your right to be free from threat or intimidation of any kind. We support your right to refuse service to anyone who is causing trouble, threatening to cause trouble or likely to cause trouble."
"This acknowledgement of our rights is a substantial move by this organisation," Mr Browne said.
Mr David Joyce, of the Irish Traveller Movement, said he was "happy that the Minister had expressed continued commitment to the equality legislation" and that a review of, or change in, the Equal Status Act was not on the cards.
He said that the Irish Traveller Movement had agreed to a request from Mr O'Dea to make a submission to the Liquor Licensing Commission, which is reviewing the law on publicans' rights to refuse service to individuals. Up to now, Travellers' organisations have refused to make submissions to the commission, believing it to be dominated by vintners' interests.
"The right to refuse must be based on some rationale, not just because someone is a member of the Travelling community", Mr Joyce said.