Mr. Ciarán Finlay:

Regarding the optional protocol, there are a number of admissibility criteria a complainant has to satisfy. One of these is that the person must have exhausted all available domestic remedies. This could include a quasi-judicial tribunal. If, for instance, someone has an equality complaint, they have to go to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. If there are further avenues for appeal, to the High Court, say, for a judicial review or to the Court of Appeal, the person has to follow those and take those remedies. There are certain exceptions. For instance, if the remedy is considered to be very prolonged and there is a long time between the person taking the complaint and it being resolved, the person can take the complaint directly to the committee, but they would have to show that they had taken steps. It cannot be just a hypothetical argument that, for instance, there were big delays within the court system.