Cabinet ministers have signed off on an agreement ending a dispute involving the Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA) at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that cost the organisation about €385,000.
Under the deal, the CEA made a contribution of nearly €37,000 to the legal fees of the complainant who withdrew his case.
The CEA ensures businesses comply with company law and enforces the legislation in the Republic’s civil and criminal courts.
Details of the settlement were set out in a letter from the chairman of the CEA, Ian Drennan, to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was considered at a hearing of the PAC on Thursday.
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Drennan said ministerial sanction had been received at the end of July for the agreement under which the CEA made no admission of liability.
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He said “no compensation has been, or will be, paid by the CEA to the complainant”.
Drennan said “in full and final settlement of this matter, the CEA has made a financial contribution towards the legal costs incurred by the complainant”. He said the contribution paid was €36,900 inclusive of VAT.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the above-referenced contribution towards the complainant’s legal costs was not paid until (i) the required sanction had been obtained, and (ii) written confirmation had been received from the WRC that the complainant’s claims had been withdrawn.”
Drennan said the costs incurred by the CEA in dealing with the issue had been “substantial” and amounted in total to €385,646.
He said these included an investigation of certain matters that cost €43,000.
Legal fees incurred were more than €290,000. These were made up of solicitors’ fees of €205,131, senior counsel’s fees of €55,043 and junior counsel fees of €30,147.
Details of the case were not set out in the letter and the CEA had previously sought to have the hearing at the WRC held in private.
Drennan told the committee in his letter that “having regard to all relevant considerations, the CEA intended to fully and robustly defend these proceedings when the matter came on for full hearing before the WRC”.
“The fact that, in advance of the matter going to full hearing, the complaints were withdrawn with the CEA making no admission of liability, paying no compensation, and the complainant recovering less than the entirety of their outlay on legal expenses speaks for itself,” he said.
“It is also of significance that, having considered all information relevant to this matter, sanction was granted by the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation.”
