Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to address point the Minister made on the anonymity of cases. Senators Craughwell and Ruane made the point that many people do not like taking employment rights cases as they are too afraid that it may jeopardise their employment. Cases in the WRC are, in the first instance, held in private. From a practitioners point of view, that causes a lot of issues, and we are hearing anecdotally of many cases being appealed to the Labour Court. We know that employment rights cases in the Labour Court are held in public. There is a big chance that if someone brings a case to the WRC that it will end up in the Labour Court and the person will not have that anonymity. It will be held in public. It is a bit of a misnomer to say it is completely private and anonymous. It is not anonymous if it ends up in the Labour Court.