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

The Deputy's proposed amendment would introduce a further and unnecessary administrative burden on the workplace relations commission and the Labour Court in dealing with complaints in respect of which the complainant has failed over an extended period to manifest any intention of prosecuting. The introduction of such an additional administrative layer and the consequent extension of the period for which an unprosecuted complaint would remain open is not desirable in the context of a new system which is premised on the efficient processing of cases from the perspective of both complainants and respondents. As drafted, section 50 empowers but does not compel the director general and the Labour Court to strike out a complaint or appeal that has not been prosecuted for a year or longer. In each case, the director general and the Labour Court must be satisfied the complainant-appellant has not pursued the complaint or appeal for the specified period. How the director general or Labour Court would seek to establish this to be the case in practice is an administrative matter. In practice, they will write and notify the person concerned that this has not been pursued but I do not want to extend this or provide another round in this as the Deputy would do with his amendment.

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