Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 37:

In page 38, to delete lines 7 to 11 and substitute the following:“(11) A complainant may, in proceedings before an adjudication officer or the Labour Court in respect of a complaint presented, or dispute referred, by the complainant under this Part, be accompanied and represented by—

(a) a trade union official within the meaning of section 11 of the Act of 1990,
(b) an official of a body in respect of which the adjudication officer or Labour Court, as the case may be, is satisfied represents the interests of employers,
(c) a practising barrister or practising solicitor,
(d) in the case of a complainant who is less than 18 years of age, the complainant’s parent or guardian in addition to a person specified in paragraph (a), (b) or (c),
and
(e) any other person with the permission of the adjudication officer or Labour Court, as may be appropriate.”.

Subsection 41(11), as published, created some ambiguity about the range of persons who would be permitted to accompany or represent a complainant or respondent at proceedings before an adjudication officer and before the Labour Court. The wording, as published, could also be read as vesting in the adjudication officer or the Labour Court the power to determine whether a particular person could accompany or represent a party appearing before him, her or it. This was not intended.
The proposed amendment removed the ambiguity in both respects by specifying in detail the full range of persons whom a party may choose to be accompanied or represented by and by carefully identifying the specified matters in which an adjudication officer or the Labour Court may exercise their discretion - that is, in accepting whether a body which purports to do so in fact represents the interests of employers and whether, in respect of a particular complainant, it is appropriate to permit some other person who does not come within the categories listed, (a) to (d), to represent a part in respect of that complainant. The purpose of the latter discretion is to ensure that an adjudication officer or the Labour Court can intervene when he, she or it is of the view that it is in the best interests of the party concerned to do so in the matter of that party's choice of representation in circumstances where the party has chosen to be represented by a person not falling within the usual categories of representative.