Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the finding of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, that one of the Government's Ministers of State, Deputy John Halligan, discriminated against a serving civil servant during the course of an interview. A number of issues arise. First, on the payment of the fine imposed, I am concerned that a double standard is being applied. The Tánaiste will recall that when the Government finally confirmed that an unlawful overpayment had been made to a Minister of State, through no fault of the Minister of State concerned, it was determined that the sum should be repaid. I understand arrangements for the Minister of State to repay the money are in place, but we have not heard a word from the Tánaiste or the Government about this fine, despite the fact that it had been imposed as a result of the Minister of State's own personal breach of employment equality legislation. In that context, I ask the Tánaiste to clarify whether the Minister of State will be required to recoup to the Department the full amount of the fine.

The next issue is apologising to the victim of the discrimination. During the course of the aforementioned interview the Minister of State began by saying, "I know I shouldn't be asking this;" therefore, we can see clearly that he had full knowledge that on what he was embarking was wrong. Without playing word games, will the Tánaiste take the opportunity to apologise and make it clear that this approach which we thought had disappeared from interviews 20 years ago or more is not tolerated as part of normal procedures?

Will there be other consequences for Deputy John Halligan, given that he is a Minister of State in the Department responsible for equality law and has broken that law?

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