The Equality Authority is to target persistent inequality in organisations which is resulting in pay gaps of up to 15 per cent between men and women.
It is one of a number of aims in the organisation's new three-year strategy, which was launched by the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, yesterday.
Despite substantial progress in advancing the equality agenda, the authority's chief executive, Niall Crowley, said significant inequalities remain across the nine grounds covered by equality legislation.
These inequalities include the lack of partnership rights for gay and lesbian couples, underdevelopment of community care for older people and the high numbers of Traveller families without access to permanent accommodation.
"These issues will serve as the focus for a range of specific initiatives that seek to contribute to core issues of current importance to particular groups experiencing inequality," Mr Crowley said.
This work will include:
r Developing new work on promoting equality in schools and the health service.
r Conducting inquiries and equality reviews, as well as sustaining a culture of compliance with legislation through litigation.
r Enhancing an equality infrastructure by ensuring any new legislation is "equality-proofed" and placing emphasis on positive action.
Overall, Embedding Equality, which is the organisation's third strategy document, emphasises the contribution of individual action, organisational practice and societal values in promoting equality and combating discrimination.
Mr Crowley said he was aware of cases where some landlords were not letting their properties to people because of their race. This was one of a number of areas which the authority planned to investigate.
Mr McDowell also noted that race grounds were the largest cause of complaint in relation to discrimination in employment
"As our economic growth is increasingly reliant on diverse sources of labour supply and on our ability to attract and retain migrant workers, the trend of increased cases of discrimination on the race ground is one for concern," he said.
The Minister said his department was involved in helping to promote equality for a number of minorities groups, such as Travellers, and restated plans to establish a working group on civil partnerships.
Mr McDowell said the group would provide options consistent with the Constitution which should be ready in the coming months.
