SVP Submission Review of Equality Acts 2021

The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission on the Review of Equality Acts. As the largest charity of social concern in Ireland we work to provide practical assistance to those experiencing financial hardship and work to address the root causes of poverty through our policy and advocacy work.

SVP welcomed the inclusion in the Programme for Government to “examine the introduction of a new ground of discrimination, based on socioeconomic disadvantaged status to the Employment Equality and Equal Status Acts.” In this submission we focus on the links between poverty and discrimination, the need to add socioeconomic status as a protected ground under equality law, the experiences of SVP supporting people in poverty and experiencing discrimination and recommendations for improvements to Ireland’s equality legislation.