Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

The short answer is "No", the Minister cannot do so. In the first instance, the Equality Tribunal is a very important part of the architecture of our democracy. We cannot say we will limit the number of complaints a person wishes to make. It is clearly not a burden on the tribunal which has dealt with every case that has come before it. There is a queue and it is dealing with these cases, too. However, if one were to go down the road of trying to limit the number of complaints an individual could make, no matter what the Senator's opinion of the case is, that would be a retrograde step. As already stated, the tribunal is sufficiently robust to deal with issues of this nature. If the Senator is conscious of continual complaints being made in this instance, then I am sure the tribunal is also aware of them. The tribunal has dealt with the matter in the way it has chosen. We must allow bodies such as the tribunal to deal with complaints as they see fit.