The Workplace Relations Commission found that Idalina Diniz Marciel’s nationality discrimination complaint against Sligo County Council was not well founded. Adjudication Officer Janet Hughes, in a decision dated 4 July 2024, also dismissed her housing assistance complaint as misconceived; her harassment complaint was withdrawn.
Marciel said the Council discriminated against her while she sought housing transfers and a Council-owned home. The Council said it had applied its housing allocation rules and that she did not meet the priority criteria until her landlord planned to sell her home in early 2024.
The adjudicator found Marciel had not established facts that could support a presumption of nationality discrimination. For the housing assistance complaint, she noted that the people Marciel compared herself with also received housing support. The law requires a suitable comparison with someone who was not receiving such support, so the complaint was misconceived. The Council had argued that notification requirements and time limits barred the complaints, but the adjudicator allowed them to proceed and decided their merits, citing exceptional circumstances. Marciel clarified that she did not mean the employee had personally harassed her, and that complaint was withdrawn.