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

The term "frivolous or vexatious" is a legal one and not pejorative in any sense. It is merely a question of saying that as far as the complainant is concerned, if he or she has no reasonable chance of succeeding, the law says it is frivolous to bring the case. Similarly, it is a hardship on defendants to have to take steps to defend something which cannot succeed and the law calls that "vexatious". The current regime operated by the Director of the Equality Tribunal provides a very good example of the effective filtering of complaints on receipt. Under the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts, the director of the tribunal has the power to dismiss a complaint at any stage if he is of the opinion that it is made in bad faith or is frivolous, vexatious or misconceived or relates to a trivial matter. It is entirely logical that a similar power be vested in the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission.

The exercise by the Director of the Equality Tribunal of the power under section 22 of the Equal Status Act was unsuccessfully challenged by the claimant appellant in Fitzgerald v.the Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, which came before the High Court by way of an appeal on a point of law from a judgment of the Circuit Court. The terms "frivolous" and "vexatious" are very tightly defined to refer to circumstances where there is no chance of success. It is not the sort of case the Senator envisages that will be struck out here.