Say a landlord will not rent you a flat because you are a lone parent or a hotel refuses to take a booking for your wedding because you are a Traveller.
Under a law which comes into force today you can bring a complaint that you have been discriminated against to an equality enforcement body and ultimately to the courts.
The Equal Status Act prohibits all providers of goods and services available to the public from discriminating against people on the nine grounds of gender, age, marital and family status, religion, race, sexual orientation, disability or membership of the Traveller community.
State and private service providers, including banks, pubs, schools, restaurant owners and transport companies, will face a raft of new responsibilities under the law once it is signed into effect this afternoon by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue.
The Office of the Director of Equality Investigations (ODEI) will handle complaints arising out of the new provisions and has the power to impose fines and to direct remedial action to be taken. Its services are free and it will hold its hearings in private and make its decisions public.
The Director of Equality Investigations, Ms Melanie Pine, said the law brings, for the first time, "an enforceable equality right to the market place".
"Up until now the right to equality was confined to the workplace, but now it stretches across a whole spectrum of our activities," she added.
The first step for people who feel they have been discriminated against is to write to the provider of the goods or services stating the nature of their allegations and their intentions to make a complaint to the ODEI.
If no remedy is agreed at this stage, complaints can be lodged with the ODEI and one of its equality status officers will take submissions from both sides. This is followed by an oral hearing, which will lead to a written decision.
The ODEI can award compensation of up to £5,000, as well as directing the provider of the goods or services to take remedial action. Its decisions are binding and enforceable by the Circuit Court.
The Equality Authority will provide free advice, support and legal assistance for people considering taking a complaint to the ODEI. It will also give advice to providers of goods and services on how the legislation works.
Mr Gerry Hickey, from the authority's communications section, said it has already agreed to work on a code of practice with the Dublin-based Licensed Vintners' Association and other bodies representing the hotel and restaurant trade.
The Equal Status Act is the market-place counterpart of the Employment Equality Act, which took effect last year and outlawed discrimination in the workplace on the same nine grounds. Mr Hickey said most queries to the Equality Authority about workplace discrimination had involved gender.
He said that while the authority would treat all nine grounds in the new law equally, he expected discrimination on the grounds of disability, age, race and membership of the Traveller community to be the most common areas of complaint.
The new law has been welcomed by the Pavee Point Travellers' Centre and the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network.
For further information, contact the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations, tel: 014173300. Low-call: 1890 344424. Website: www.odei.ie