Work-related issues aired in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) featured prominently in our top 10, taking the first, second and ninth places. Consumer issues highlighted by readers also feature prominently.
WRC-related stories displaced the main points story on the budget, which would usually be our most read annually. All the good stuff from the budget was leaked early and often this year and the fact that it made little difference to most people’s personal taxes probably contributed to our traditional champion relinquishing its crown.
1) Coming with a strong 173,607 page views was a story from the Workplace Relations Commission by reporter Stephen Bourke concerning a cook and his working conditions under the headline “Garda raid on home of award-winning curry restaurant owner finds bank card in worker’s name”.
It told of how the Garda raid on the home of a leading restaurateur last December found personal documents belonging to a migrant chef who has said he was “never made aware” of a debit card in his name, a tribunal has heard.
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Fahid Saleem, codirector of his family’s award-winning Pakistani curry house group, Daata, told the WRC he had “zero knowledge” that his wife had been given the documents belonging to the chef, her orphaned cousin Mohammad Usman Ghani.
The WRC noted sworn evidence from Mr Ghani, a commis chef brought to Ireland on a work permit in 2023, that he knew nothing of a debit card for a bank account into which his wages were being paid, and only got access “thanks to the guards”.
2) Our second most read also comes courtesy of the WRC, registering a healthy 137,141 readers. The headline “Employee sacked after HR chief recorded him on phone call wins €10k for unfair dismissal” captures the story perfectly. Thomas Delaney secured the award on foot of a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against NSP Expert Lab Solutions in a decision published by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Mr Delaney, who lost his job of more than eight years with the firm in May 2024, told the tribunal he thought his conversation with its HR chief in February that year was “in confidence” and that he never consented to a recording.
Representing himself at a WRC hearing in August 2024, he said he was “off on stress leave” at the time of the call and said that he “vented” frustrations over the phone.
3) Budget 2026 comes in at number three, though rather than the main points, it was our live blog that recorded all that happened on the day, though everything had been leaked to death beforehand. It notched a healthy 133,768 in readers and told us, among other things, that the VAT rate on hospitality would be reduced from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent from July 2026 and that prices of cigarettes, petrol and diesel would rise and there would be virtually no change in income tax rates.
4) Number four in the list was from our resident sage Cantillon, which clocked up 105,494 views. Headlined “Who owns SuperValu? Don’t ask Sinn Féin” it related how Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty, commenting in the Dáil on the cost-of-living crisis and the stock prices of the supermarket behemoths, got it wrong in relation to SuperValu. “United Natural Foods Inc, the owners of SuperValu, saw its stock price rise by 60 per cent in the last year,” he said.
The SuperValu owned by United Natural Foods is a US supermarket chain that is not connected with SuperValu in Ireland. The Irish chain is owned by Cork-based Musgrave.
5) Another consumer related story comes in at number five. Headlined “A Dunnes parcel goes missing, a customer loses €672, and the retailer won’t repay her”, it garnered 93,621 readers.
“I have found the whole experience to be extremely upsetting, frustrating and simply unjust,” said Sarah, who had the interaction with Dunnes. “I am out of pocket to the tune of €672 and neither Dunnes Stores nor An Post are taking responsibility or offering to make amends even out of goodwill. I am still at a loss as to where my parcel with my purchased clothes is that I wished to return to Dunnes. No one has provided that explanation,” she told Pricewatch.
6) At number six, we have another Pricewatch story, which generated 89,636 views under the headline “A sleeping passenger goes hungry on an Aer Lingus flight across the Atlantic”. The reader’s trip got off to a bad start when she was asked to move seats even though the row she was in was empty.
She dozed and on waking went to see about food but no crew were visible. She says when “eventually things began stirring again I asked about food and was told that I had been asleep when they served dinner. They don’t wake passengers and there was no food for me, as it would be cold now”.
She says that “some time later I was given something left over from the business class breakfast being served. At no time did anyone apologise or suggest that there had been an oversight. When I tried to mention what happened as I disembarked I was told it was my own fault and I ‘should have known’. I should have known not to sleep I suppose.” She later complained to Aer Lingus and five months on had received no reply other than an automated message saying her issue was being reviewed.
7) Another Aer Lingus story had 85,626 readers and concerned a family’s travails on returning home from spending Christmas in the US with family. The headline captures the essence of the story: “An Irish family’s Miami ordeal: ‘I was shocked by the heartlessness of Aer Lingus.” While they were away, their son turned two (necessitating his own seat rather that sitting on a parent’s lap), which they had flagged on departure and were led to believe it would not be a problem.
“After presenting our passports, the agent at the desk informed us that as our son was now two years old, he would require his own seat. I informed him that we had attempted to purchase him his own seat when booking the tickets, but were informed by the airline that because he was an infant for the first leg of the journey, this would not be possible.”
Brian says he made “multiple attempts to explain the situation to the agent but he did not appear to listen/care or offer a solution other than ‘he needs his own ticket’”. The family ended up flying home separately at a high cost as there were no seats available on the flight for their son and could not believe how they were treated.
“After myself and my daughter had gone through the security gates and my distraught wife was left alone with our son in the airport, she attempted to make several more calls to Aer Lingus to try to secure immediate return to Ireland. However, nobody she spoke to was of any assistance and one airline representative went so far as to laugh at her predicament.”
8) The headline on another consumer-related story “Rathwood Garden Furniture: Some customers are starting to run out of patience” sums up the story that clocked in with 82,004 readers. The company had run into supply-chain issues that resulted in long delays in fulfilling orders. As our correspondent put it, he “felt compelled to let you know that their practice of taking orders, not filling them at the set time frame (pushed back) and no refunds, continues”.
9) Another work-related piece attracted up to 81,579 readers. “WRC ruling is final nail in coffin of the right to remote working” headlined the column outlining how the WRC’s ruling on an employee’s request for remote working that was refused by his employer- the Irish arm of a US information technology services and consulting group – would now determine the future of such requests. The WRC backed the employer’s arguments, which as the writer put it, would be seen by many as the final nail in the coffin of the promised right to remote working.
10) With 80,917 views was our Budget 2026 Main Points story, which outlined the details of the steady-as-she-goes budget. There were minimal tax changes, a VAT cut for hospitality, renters’ tax credit extended whilethe usual suspects, cigarettes, diesel and petrol, went up.
