The number of cases brought before the Equality Tribunal alleging employment discrimination has quadrupled in the past six years.
The tribunal's annual report for 2005 showed overall increases in the number of cases, particularly in the employment sector. Preliminary figures for the first six months of this year also show that employment cases taken on the grounds of racial discrimination have jumped by more than 100 per cent over the same period last year.
The report for last year said that the number of individuals alleging discrimination in relation to work, pensions or access to goods and services was the highest on record, at 1,669.
Tribunal director Melanie Pine said: "This was the highest number of individual claimants ever, more than 29 per cent higher than the previous peak in 2002 and more than 10 times the number of claimants in 2000."
Overall, claims to the tribunal increased by 31 per cent in 2005 compared to 2004, with a 35 per cent rise in employment equality cases and a 24 per cent increase in equal status cases, where disability and age were the main grounds.
Equality officers found in favour of the complainant in 23 per cent of employment cases and made awards totalling €121,000, with an average of €8,643. The highest award was €20,000.
In equal status cases involving access to goods and services, tribunal officers found in favour of the complainant in 34 per cent of the cases and made awards totalling €38,400. The average award was €565 and the highest €1,500.
The preliminary figures for the first half of 2006 showed that 203 new cases had been referred in the employment sector. This compares with 209 in the same period last year.
The percentage of cases alleging racial discrimination in employment has doubled - from 32 per cent in the first six months of 2005 to 64 per cent in the first half of this year - while race cases accounted for 32 per cent of all employment case referrals in the first six months of 2006.
In 2004, the number of cases taken on grounds of race discrimination in employment was 51. The total rose to 82 in 2005, a 61 per cent increase.
Last year, the main grounds were gender, which accounted for 22 per cent of cases, with race at 21 per cent, disability at 16 per cent and age at 11 per cent.
Over the six years from 2000 to 2005 there was a fourfold increase in cases in which discrimination in employment was claimed, the number rising from 102 in 2000 to 399 last year.
The number of employment cases referred to the tribunal in 2005 against private-sector employers rose sharply from 164 in 2004 to 267 last year.
The report showed that mediation resolved a quarter of tribunal cases. The number of cases referred to mediation remained stable at about 40 per cent.
In pensions cases, 2005 was the first full year in which people could refer claims for equality in pensions on more than just the single ground of gender. The tribunal received seven claims citing six of the nine grounds.