Key appointees at the WRC were inoperative for months at a time of huge backlog
In June 2015, then Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD announced that 19 new Adjudication Officers had been selected by the State. The news came as a huge relief to many who had been waiting for years to have their employment and equality cases heard.
At tax-payers’ expense, the appointees underwent weeks of intensive training at a specially prepared course at the National College of Ireland. They were formally appointed as Adjudication Officers by Richard Bruton TD on 01 October 2015, the date of establishment of the new Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
However, it can now be revealed that several of these newly-appointed adjudicators heard no cases for months after their appointment, and some heard no cases at all.
Ian Barrett was appointed for a five-year period from 01 October 2015 to 30 September 2020. He conducted his first hearing as an Adjudication Officer in June 2016, over eight months after his appointment. During the first sixteen months of his tenure, to end 2016, he conducted a total of 5 days of hearings.
Louise Boyle, also appointed on 01 October 2015 for a five-year period, maintained a full-time job at PlanNet21 Communications for the first eight months after her appointment. She was a HR manager with the Dublin-headquartered technology firm until June 2016. Boyle only began conducting regular hearings as an Adjudication Officer in late August 2016. By 22 August 2016, she had conducted only four hearings: one each in January and February 2016, and two in April.
Two of the newly-appointed Adjudication Officers never heard any cases at all. Janine Breen and Ian Moore were among the 19 individuals selected and trained by the State to ease the huge backlog of cases that had built up at that time. However, both Breen and Moore walked away from their roles as adjudicators shortly after being appointed in October 2015. Moore was a Partner or Consultant with A&L Goodbody at the time. Breen was former Head of HR Ireland with Hewlett Packard.
Ian Moore remained with A&L Goodbody until 2019. He now works as a mediator of workplace disputes. Janine Breen is currently a director at Margin Business Solutions.
By early 2017, the situation at the WRC had deteriorated to such an extent that people were waiting up to 4 years to have their cases heard.
