Debate contribution: Age Discrimination (Goods, Facilities and Services) Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on .
- MLA
- Ms Paula Bradshaw
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 20 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Age Discrimination (Goods, Facilities and Services) Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5798506
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. That is certainly worth noting as we scrutinise the Bill. There is a question about what constitutes "goods" and "services". They are probably defined in legislation somewhere, but we probably need to look at the practical application of that terminology. I cannot help but think that it might have been easier simply to match the single Equality Act that applies in Great Britain. While I welcome the ambition to go beyond that, I wonder whether doing so creates too many risks of unintended consequences. For example, the Bill states that financial services are not to be exempt from the legislation, even though they are exempt in Great Britain, but it also requires that regulations in Northern Ireland take account of what happens in Great Britain. In effect, Northern Ireland should take account of what happens in Great Britain in that regard but must not do what Great Britain does. I am not sure that that circle can be squared. At best, it could create a law for the courts to interpret without a precedent from anywhere else in the UK. At worst, there is a serious risk that providers, as I mentioned, may simply not bother to provide services in Northern Ireland if the legislative framework is so uncertain about what is or is not justified and how that can be demonstrated.
Go ahead.
230 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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