Two council tenants were victimised and discriminated against by Tipperary Town Council after they sought to raise concerns about anti-social behaviour by other council tenants in their area, an equality tribunal has ruled.
In a strongly-worded judgment, equality officer Bernadette Treanor awarded Kevin and Jackie Buckley, who are in receipt of disability payments, €6,350 each and ordered the council to implement a range of changes to its procedures.
This includes a full review of its policy on rent arrears and its procedures relating to anti-social behaviour.
In her report, Ms Trainor questions the timing of a "notice to quit" that was issued to the Buckleys less than two weeks after they notified the town council of their claim against it under the Equal Status Act 2000 in March 2006.
This was despite the fact that the Buckleys paid their rent "more or less consistently" at that time, although they did stop doing so for a time in protest at what they claimed was a lack of action in relation to their complaints.
Just one week after the Buckleys notified the council of their complaint of discrimination, it told them that it would not permit any further telephone calls or visits due to the "disproportionate amount of time their contacts were taking up".
The report finds that the complainants were discriminated against because the council "failed to provide all that is reasonable to allow them to continue to avail of their various services".
It notes that the Buckleys had been suffering from stress caused by their perception of their situation, and that their health "was causing some members of the medical profession real and serious concern".
When the notice to quit was issued on March 24th, 2006, only three weeks rent in total was overdue, as had been the case in January of that year, Ms Trainor's report adds.
"Since nothing appears to have happened or changed to warrant such a change of approach on the part of the council other than the receipt of the complainants' notification . . . on the balance of probabilities I find that the issue of the notice to quit constitutes victimisation," it states.
"Many decisions taken in respect of the Buckleys, both favourable and unfavourable, appear to have been taken on a whim and without policy and procedural support," the report continues.
The council had also argued that there had been no discrimination against the complainants on the grounds of their disability, something which the report upheld.
However, it ordered the council to "immediately introduce" a procedure to interact with the complainants and other service users in similar circumstances in a transparent manner given their disabilities.