The High Court has affirmed the dismissal of a farmer’s claim that he was harassed and victimised by agents of South Tipperary County Council after they said he needed planning permission to make his land arable.
The statutory appeal concerned an Equality Tribunal decision to dismiss the claim at an early stage as misconceived and without a prospect of success. The claimant had argued that he was discriminated against on grounds of race, describing himself as “a member of the farming community: (an ethnic group)”. The Director of the Tribunal concluded that membership of the farming community was not a protected ground under the Equal Status Acts and that the Tribunal had no jurisdiction to investigate the claim.
The Circuit Court affirmed that decision in April 2010. The farmer then appealed to the High Court on a point of law. Mr Justice Hogan held that farmers did not constitute an ethnic group for the purposes of the Acts. He said the relevant concept of ethnicity concerned characteristics such as shared history and culture, and that an occupational group’s traditions and history did not make it an ethnic group. Farmers did not share an immutable or quasi-immutable characteristic that would bring them within the race ground, he held.
The claimant also argued that the Equal Treatment Directive had not been properly transposed into Irish law. The judge rejected that argument, explaining that the Directive prohibits discrimination on racial or ethnic grounds within specified areas, including access to goods and services, but does not cover other forms of discrimination. He found no ambiguity requiring a reference to the Court of Justice and declined to make one.
The High Court affirmed the Circuit Court’s decision. The judgment records that the statutory appeal was on a point of law; it does not determine the underlying planning dispute or make findings about the council agents’ conduct.