Employment Equality Act, 1998
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Equality Investigations | ||
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Director of Equality Investigations and other officers. |
75.—(1) The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, shall appoint a person to be the Director of Equality Investigations to perform the functions conferred on the Director by or under this Act or any other enactment. | |
(2) The office of the Director shall consist of the Director and such staff as, subject to subsection (3), may be appointed by the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, to assist the Director in carrying out the Director's functions; and the Director and the persons so appointed to the staff of the Director shall be subject to the Civil Service Commissioners Act, 1956 , and the Civil Service Regulation Acts, 1956 to 1996. | ||
(3) Any person who, immediately before the commencement of this subsection, was holding office as an equality officer of the Labour Relations Commission shall, on that commencement and by virtue of this subsection, become as an equality officer, a member of the staff of the Director. | ||
(4) From among the Director's staff the Director may— | ||
(a) appoint persons to be equality officers, and | ||
(b) appoint persons, including those who are equality officers (whether by virtue of subsection (3) or of appointment under paragraph (a)) to be equality mediation officers, | ||
and the Director may delegate any function conferred on the Director by or under this Act or any other enactment to an equality officer or equality mediation officer. | ||
(5) The Director, equality mediation officers and equality officers shall be independent in the performance of their functions. | ||
(6) Subject to subsection (7), the delegation of a function under subsection (4) shall not affect the continuing power of the Director to exercise that function concurrently with the officer to whom it is delegated. | ||
(7) Where, under subsection (4), the Director has delegated to an officer the function of hearing a case referred to the Director under section 77 — | ||
(a) the delegation shall be taken to include the power to issue a decision in the case, | ||
(b) the function may not be exercised concurrently by the Director, and | ||
(c) the delegation may not be revoked or varied except at the request of the officer to whom the function was delegated or if there are exceptional circumstances preventing that officer from acting (or continuing to act). | ||
(8) The Director shall, within 6 months of the commencement of every calendar year, make a report to the Minister on the activities of the office of the Director in respect of the previous calendar year, or in the case of the first calendar year of operation, that part of the calendar year in which the office was in operation. |