The Labour Court found it had no jurisdiction to hear Jimmy Leahy’s protected-disclosure penalisation complaint against the Private Residential Tenancies Board, Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). The determination was signed on 12 October 2021 and varied the Adjudication Officer’s decision, which had found the complaint not well founded. The Court did not decide whether penalisation occurred.
Leahy argued that the Board’s failure to reappoint him to its board followed a protected disclosure he made to the Minister with three other board members. The Board said the decision not to reappoint him rested solely with the Minister and that he had not suffered penalisation.
The Court found Leahy was a worker under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, but not an employee of the Board. It held that section 12’s protection applies to employees. A worker’s claim under section 13 is an action in tort for detriment and falls outside the Labour Court’s jurisdiction, for the civil courts to hear.
Leahy also appealed a separate decision under the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977, but withdrew that appeal after case management.