Teacher gets €5,000 for discrimination

A TEACHER who was discriminated against because of her age in an interview for a deputy principal’s job has been awarded €5,000 by the Equality Tribunal.

The complaint was made by Margaret O’Neill, who was 48 when she applied for the post at St Gabriel’s national school, Ballyfermot in Dublin in September 2000. She said she was asked by the interview board chairman: “Considering that you have been teaching for 27 years, why would you now be bothered with the hassle of the job of deputy principal?”

When she referred to her attendance at an education management course in Trinity College the previous year, the independent member of the board said the course had been undertaken “only last summer.”