Aldi set to pay €7,500 to girl after store manager’s ‘tinker’ remark
At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Gerald Keys approved the award to a 17-year-old Traveller girl arising from the incident at the Aldi store in Ennis on November 5 last.
Patrick Quinn, counsel for the Ennis girl, said Aldi offered the €7,500 but has made no admission of liability in the defamation action being brought by the girl. This rankles with the girl’s father.
Mr Quinn said the girl was at the Aldi store on Francis St with her infant brother, accompanied by an adult member of the Traveller community who was with her own infant son.
He said they were app-roached by a shopper who told them they overheard the store manager tell one of the security guards “to keep an eye on the tinkers in aisle three”.
The shopper told them it was her view that the comment was made about them.
Mr Quinn said the group, including his client, moved to aisle six “and the security man followed them throughout the store and maintained overt surveillance of them as they went around”.
He said the adult in the group became upset by this, approached the store manager, and relayed to him what he said earlier.
Mr Quinn said the store manager denied saying it and another customer approached the manager to say, “I heard you say it”.
Mr Quinn said the store manager “became irate and said that it was his word against theirs”.
He said the store manager departed the scene and the security guard told the group that “whatever was said, it was him that said it, it wasn’t said by me”.
Mr Quinn said his client “was very conscious that people were looking at them and upset that if persons were to encounter them who had been in the store on the day, they would have a negative and false impression of her which she did nothing to create”.
The statement of claim lodged on behalf of the teenager states that she “suffered considerable distress, upset, hurt, humiliation, and embarrassment and damage to her reputation”.
Mr Quinn said the girl is studying for her Leaving Certificate and hopes, if grades permit, to study for a third-level qualification in Limerick in hairdressing and beauty therapy.
He added: “She is a member of a very prominent family in Ennis who brought a lot of distinction to the town with the accumulation of county, provincial, and national boxing titles”.
Mr Quinn said his client “has never in her life been questioned by gardaí, never subject of criminal investigation, or ever barred or ejected from shops”.
He argued that “the pejorative and disparaging comment made by the store manager indicates a reckless form of racial stereotyping due to my client’s membership of the Traveller community”.
Mr Quinn said his client’s solicitor has not spoken to the woman who overheard the manager’s comment at the store and there is no guarantee she would be available if the case went to hearing. He said Aldi had not yet offered a defence.
Mr Quinn said it would not be in his client’s interests to reject the offer from Aldi.
Judge Keys said that with all of the circumstances outlined, the teenager “would be foolish not to accept the offer”. He approved the award and awarded legal costs to the teenager.
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