The Workplace Relations Commission has ordered The Miners Bar Ltd The Miners Bar to pay Bernard Ward €3,000 after finding it discriminated against him on the Traveller community ground. The decision was dated 9 February 2023.
Ward sought to book the bar for 50 people for a family gathering to mark the first anniversary of his father’s death. The bar initially pencilled in the booking, then cancelled it after Ward corrected his surname from Walsh to Ward. It said it would not be open on the Thursday and was uncertain about indoor service under Covid rules.
The bar denied discrimination. The adjudicator found that the cancellation followed the surname correction and accepted Ward was known as a Traveller name in the region. She said the bar’s explanation was unconvincing: restrictions had not changed between the provisional booking and its cancellation, and the bar had not initially raised a problem with a Thursday booking. The adjudicator also noted that the bar offered no alternative dates or arrangements. Under the Equal Status Act, Ward had to establish facts from which discrimination could be inferred; the bar then had to rebut that inference. The adjudicator found it had not done so and declared the complaint well founded.