Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their contributions. I have learned a good deal from their expertise and experience in this area and it has been an eye opener. When I first became a Member of the Seanad in 1993 the unfair dismissals legislation was going through the Houses, it having been circulated to the trade unions and others six months prior to that. I did not know quite what I would do in Parliament and I looked for what was in the customer interest in each item of legislation. The first issue that cropped up in the unfair dismissals legislation was an incident I had come across in a hotel where somebody had suggested that the hotel should sack the "auld one" behind the reception desk and appoint an attractive young one. The person was asked why the hotel should do that to which the person replied: "I like to see an attractive young one when I go into the hotel rather than an auld one. The manager said "No, she is very good". It dawned on me that it seemed very unfair that it was not illegal to dismiss somebody on the grounds of age. I submitted an amendment to the legislation that age would be one of the grounds for wrongful dismissal and the then Minister, Mary O'Rourke, accepted it. She had some difficulty accepting some other amendments but she accepted that one and it became law. A number of trade unionists said to me afterwards that they were amazed about that, that the draft legislation had been circulated to them months prior to that and that somebody from the employer side, as opposed to an employee, had come up with that proposal.
I mention that aspect in the context of the case of Hussein v. the Labour Court that was heard two months ago. That case involved a cousin of a person from Turkey or somewhere who had been granted a work permit for the first year but had continued to work for another six or seven years and found he was treated very unfairly. He went to the Labour Court to argue his case and was awarded €91,000 but the High Court overturned the ruling on the grounds that while he had a work permit for the first year he had not got a work permit for the other six or seven years. What happened there seems very wrong. That was based on the 2003 Act. Is there any legislation in the area of wrongful dismissal that the witnesses consider we should be examining? In terms of that case, I do not know whether there was a slip up in the legislation in 2003, whether we in the Oireachtas did not keep our eye on it or whether it was intentional for some reason or other. Is there any legislation in this area that the witnesses would like to see introduced?