A barbers has been ordered to pay a transgender man €5,000 after refusing to give him a short back and sides.

Lee McLoughlin, 28, was told at Charlies Barbers in the Nutgrove shopping centre, Dublin, that they didn’t cut ladies’ hair. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruled that Mr McLoughlin had been discriminated against because he was transgender and awarded him €5,000.

Mr McLoughlin, a public servant from Walkinstown, said he was “absolutely thrilled”. “It is a huge victory for all transgender people and is the best outcome I could have wished for,” he said yesterday.

Mr McLoughlin took a seat with a number of other men at the barbers last September and waited for 25 minutes. When it was his turn the barber said: