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

Read together, subsections (5) and (7) of section 42 provide that the standard limitation period for bringing a complaint under employment and equality legislation will be six months from the relevant date, extendible by a further six months by an adjudication officer where the complainant has demonstrated reasonable cause for his or her delay in initiating the complaint.

The Deputy's proposed limitation period of two years with an additional six months extension would be unworkable from a practical point of view. It would be inconsistent with the key principle running through the reforms the Bill seeks to achieve, namely, the resolution of employment-related complaints and disputes as close to the workplace as possible and at the earliest date. A period of two years within which to refer a complaint to the WRC would be unnecessarily long and unreasonable. Such a proposal would also be inconsistent with employment legislation in other EU member states and, therefore, I am not willing to accept the amendment.

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