Tánaiste welcomes WRC award to Valerie Cox against RTÉ

Tánaiste Simon Coveney has welcomed the judgment by the Work Relations Commission (WRC) ordering RTÉ to pay broadcaster and journalist Valerie Cox €50,000 for discriminating against her on age grounds.

Mr Coveney said he hoped it “sends a signal to the many people who find themselves in similar circumstances to Ms Cox”.

The WRC ruled Ms Cox had been discriminated against because of her age in relation to the termination of her casual/irregular contract of employment, when she turned 65 in 2016.

The Tánaiste made a commitment to prioritise legislation to increase the compulsory retirement age from 65 to 70, the initial elements of which were approved last December.

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And he said he would raise the issue at Cabinet next week.

He said in the Dáil the draft Bill was being prepared and was on a list of priority legislation for the spring-summer session but he said it was “not possible to determine the length of time it will take for it to be drafted and passed through both Houses”.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin who raised the issue said "there are people who will miss the deadline and be forced out".

He pointed to legislation his party had produced in 2014 and said Sinn Féin had also drafted a Bill to deal with the issue.

‘Forced out the door’

Mr Howlin said current policy “makes no sense” and he highlighted the case of a driving instructor who was “forced out the door” even though “there is a huge backlog and we are still trying to recruit and train driving instructors”.

He said “it should not be mandatory for the State and its agencies to push people out the door when they want to continue to work and are capable of working and the State needs their services”.

The Wexford TD said there were many people in second relationships concerned that they should not be forced out and who were capable of working for many years to come and had “longer-term mortgages or financial commitments they are very anxious about”.

He said the house should be capable of working together to ensure the legislation was debated, enacted and commenced early.

Mr Coveney said the Government had approved interim arrangements which would apply to public servants who reach the age of 65 “in the time between the Government decision and the commencement of the necessary legislation”.

He acknowledged it was “not ideal” and said everyone knew former civil servants in their late 60s who would be well capable of doing a really good job. “but we are losing their expertise, knowledge and experience at a time when there is competition for skill sets in the economy” which were sometimes difficult to fill.

And he pledged to accelerate the legislation “as quickly as we can”.