Special needs education body ordered to pay €40,000 to deaf job applicant over discrimination

The Workplace Relations Commission ruled the National Council for Special Education had indirectly discriminated against Noel O’Connell on grounds of his disability. Picture: Justin Farrelly / RollingNews.ie

A State body established to improve education services for children with special needs has been ordered to pay €40,000 in compensation after discriminating against a job applicant who was deaf.

The Workplace Relations Commission ruled the National Council for Special Education had indirectly discriminated against Noel O’Connell on grounds of his disability.

Mr O’Connell, who unsuccessfully applied for the role of “adviser deaf/hard of hearing” advertised with the NCSE in March 2022, claimed the organisation had breached the Employment Equality Act over its requirement for candidates to have a qualification in Irish sign language (ISL).

He said the requirement was discriminatory as deaf people were far less likely to hold an academic qualification in ISL than other candidates.

Mr O’Connell told the WRC he had been deaf since childhood and holds a PhD in deaf education.

The WRC heard Mr O’Connell’s first language is ISL, which he uses daily although, in common with most deaf people, he does not have an academic qualification in the language.

Lawyers for Mr O’Connell said he was well qualified for the role given his academic qualification in deaf education and being fluent in ISL.

However, the NCSE’s information booklet said the successful candidate would be required to have “a qualification in ISL based on the Common European Language Framework or equivalent". 

The WRC heard Mr O’Connell was informed on May 6, 2022, that he had not been shortlisted for the role as he did not have an academic qualification in ISL.

Although the NCSE upheld a complaint he made that the requirement was discriminatory in June 2022, he was informed he could not apply for the position as the recruitment process had closed.

Mr O’Connell said he was surprised at being informed he was not being offered a remedy.

His counsel, Michael Kinsley BL, said the complainant was uniquely qualified for the job and had suffered significant losses as a result of not being shortlisted and interviewed.

He also claimed Mr O’Connell would have been successful in the absence of the discriminatory requirement — a view the NCSE claimed was “simply extraordinary".

Counsel for the NCSE, M P Guinness BL, told the WRC the internal decision which upheld Mr O’Connell’s request for a review of the decision not to shortlist him was “fundamentally flawed”, given the criteria set for the role.

The WRC heard the role of adviser deaf/hard of hearing was created to provide for the building of capacity of ISL across the school community including teachers, SNAs and other school staff.

The NCSE said it required formal qualifications in ISL for several reasons, including that they provided clear and objective evidence that candidates had the necessary language skills as well as a measure of quality assurance.

Mr Guinness said it was “simply incorrect” for Mr O’Connell to claim the requirement effectively excluded deaf people as they could also obtain a formal qualification in ISL.

However, WRC adjudication officer Jim Dolan said he believed the NCSE had decided in Mr O’Connell’s case to ignore the code of practice for appointments to the civil and public service, which states a decision of a reviewer must be considered by the administrators of a selection process.

“No remedy was offered by the designated decision maker or the NSCE and the rejection of his application was not overturned,” said Mr Dolan.