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

The Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Act will continue to govern the presentation of complaints of discrimination to the WRC and the adjudication officers will have regard to the specific provisions governing such cases in the equality Acts and not the provision of section 41. Section 41 does not apply directly to employment equality and equal status cases. Rather, sections 84 and 85 amend the Employment Equality and Equal Status Acts and make them consistent with the provisions of section 41. There is no merit in requiring a separate hearing of equality cases from other employment matters which may be in dispute between an employer and employee. Therefore I will not accept these amendments.

The purpose of this Bill is to have a single hearing, which is what we seek to provide for. The criticism of the old procedure was that because there were different sections, there could be different hearings around the same incident. What we are trying to do is avoid that complexity by having a single hearing that deals with the issues in a comprehensive manner. What the Deputy proposes is not consistent with that aim.

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