John Gaine and Pádraig Harrington settle Garda working-hours action

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

John Gaine and Pádraig Harrington settled their High Court working-hours action following a Cabinet commitment to remove the blanket exclusion of Gardaí and Defence Forces members from the EU Working Time Directive. The proceedings were reported on 30 November 2016. The two Limerick city-based gardaí brought the action over eight-hour witness-protection shifts between October 2010 and January 2011. They claimed they received neither rest nor meal breaks and were not paid overtime for periods when breaks should have been allowed.

At a High Court mention on 30 November 2016, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan was told the case could be struck out. Elizabeth Hughes, of Hughes Murphy Solicitors, representing both gardaí, said the Minister had informed her clients that the Cabinet had approved heads of a Bill believed to remove the blanket exclusion, subject to derogations permissible by law under the Directive.

The case had been due for hearing in October but did not proceed after the court was told that Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor had informed their lawyers she was bringing a Bill to Cabinet applying the Directive’s terms to the Garda. In their action against the Garda Commissioner and State, the gardaí sought declarations that their exclusion under the 1997 Act breached the Directive and the Garda Síochána code, as well as damages.