Deaf applicant’s €40,000 discrimination award is under Labour Court appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) decision awarding Noel O'Connell €40,000 for indirect disability discrimination in recruitment is under appeal to the Labour Court, according to A&L Goodbody. The firm reported the appeal in its Spring Employment Law Brief, published on 5 May 2026.

The WRC found that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) indirectly discriminated against O'Connell after it rejected his application for an Advisor Deaf/Hard of Hearing position. He had not been shortlisted because he lacked a formal academic qualification in Irish Sign Language and did not have oral communication skills, according to A&L Goodbody.

An internal review upheld his complaint and found he met the essential criteria, but the NCSE said no further steps could be taken because the recruitment process had closed. The adjudicator found that the NCSE had failed to overturn the rejection after the internal complaint was upheld.

The adjudicator awarded €40,000, setting aside the €13,000 statutory cap for access-to-employment cases on the basis that the cap did not meet the EU requirement for effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.