Mr. Martin McMahon:

The Employment Appeals Tribunal only gets to be appealed to the Circuit Court. The Social Welfare Appeals Office is the highest jurisdiction within the State body, within what civil servants can do. The Employment Appeals Tribunal decision was appealed to the courts, basically to say the Social Welfare Appeals Office has supremacy in this area. I knew I was on a hiding to nothing, but I still went through the process just simply to prove that I was an employee. When I got into the Circuit Court, and into the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the company objected vehemently through its barrister to the use of that social welfare inspector's report, because it said - the man was present in court so I have no reason to doubt this - that the man the social welfare inspector said he spoke said he never spoke to him. It denied it vehemently in court and in the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Here we have a piece of evidence, and it is extensive, lengthy and detailed, which attributes evidence to a person who was never interviewed. He was never met and never spoken to. That decision stands to this day, even though I have written to the Social Welfare Appeals Office several times to say that it must set this decision aside, that that evidence cannot be used in the Employment Appeals Tribunal or in the Circuit Court and that it has no right to use it.