Credit union chief in dismissal payout cut

A Co Meath credit union dismissed its head of lending after examining a number of loans he made, including an excessively large car loan made to a person on social welfare.

In the case, the Labour Court has halved the €25,500 awarded to Patrick Leneghan at the Workplace Relation Commission (WRC) to €12,750 for his unfair dismissal by St Colmcille’s Kells Credit Union. The credit union accepted that it didn’t follow fair procedure in dismissing the head of lending and business development and was appealing only the amount of the award made by the WRC to the Labour Court.

In the Labour Court ruling, deputy chairman Alan Haugh said that Mr Leneghan “contributed in no small measure to his own dismissal”.

Mr Haugh also confirmed that Mr Leneghan — who had worked for 25 years in the financial services sector before his appointment — also failed to produce credible evidence that he has made sufficiently rigorous attempts to mitigate his loss in the search for new work.

In evidence, St Colmcille chief executive Margaret Smith told the Labour Court that the board had been satisfied with Mr Leneghan’s performance during his first fixed-term contract of 12 months and in that period Mr Leneghan had grown the credit union’s loan book by 55%.

However, Ms Smith said that examples of the concerns about Mr Leneghan’s performance onwards included a query raised by the Central Bank about a loan for €100,000 approved by Mr Leneghan and an excessively large car loan approved by Mr Leneghan to a member whose only source of income was social welfare.