The Workplace Relations Commission found Joseph Lynch’s complaint against Bus Éireann not well founded. The decision, dated 20 June 2023, followed an incident in which a driver initially delayed Lynch and his two-year-old son from boarding a bus after a wheelchair user had got on.
Lynch alleged discrimination and harassment based on gender and family status, pointing to a woman with a child who was later allowed to board while the wheelchair remained on the bus. Bus Éireann did not attend the hearing.
The adjudicator accepted Lynch’s account and called the driver’s conduct an unfortunate lapse in customer service, but said the delay lasted at most 90 seconds. He found the gender comparison speculative and said Lynch had offered no evidence on family status beyond presuming the other passenger was the child’s mother. The incident did not meet the legal threshold for a breach.