Equality Case
Published: Wednesday, January 12, 2011
On the 19th December, 1984 article 4 of the EEC Directive 79/7 should have been implemented in Ireland. The principle was equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security. Ireland did not for whatever reason; implement this directive in December 1984, In spite of the fact that they had 7 years to do necessary work for implementation of this act. It was eventually implemented in May 1986 and finalised in November 1986.
Before December 1984 married women were discriminated against in social welfare payments. They were paid at a lesser rate per week and for three months less than married men, single men - single women, even though they paid the same rate of PRSI.
1, at the time realised that I could rely on the EEC Directive, and as it had not been implemented. I decided to challenge the Minister for Social Welfare in the Irish Courts. I applied for my extra three months unemployment benefit and at the higher rate in January 1985. My local employment office told me the bill had not been implemented and I could not be paid. Barrister, Mary Robinson, the now President, had letters in all the papers asking married women to take note and if they wanted advice to contact FLAC. This I did and a meeting was arranged. I had a consultation with her along with some other women in the same circumstances. She asked me if I would be prepared to take a case to the High Court and I consented, having firstly agreed that this case was not going to cost me money. Another married woman Ann Cotter from Dublin also agreed to follow her case through. We took the case into the High Court and after two hearings the Justice decided it should go to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The European Court of Justice was founded to protect people from dictators like Hitler and Stalin and others!! The European Court of Justice is there to be used by citizens who feel that their government are depriving them of their human rights. On the advice of our Barrister Mary Robinson, we got a European hearing on the 15th October 1986. We attended this hearing in Luxembourg in the Court of Human Rights. This trip for us was state funded. The findings of this court were given of 27th February 1987 and the court found in our favour. It then had to come back to the High Court for ratification. On going to the High Court, the Justice awarded us the higher rate of pay and the extra three months, but did not allow us all the dependency rates that married men had.
On further consultation with our barrister we decided to appeal the High Court decision. This appeal was heard in Supreme Court. This court decided that the case should be referred once again to the European Court of Justice for consideration and this took place in Luxembourg in October, 1990. This case is unique in that it is the only case that has had two hearings in Europe. Again his Court ruled in our favour and we got word of this in March 1991. We had again won our case in respect of adult dependants, transitional payments, and child dependants' rates.
In the Supreme Court in Ireland on 12th April 1991, it was agreed that the European Court Judgement had resolved the issue. We were to attend the Supreme Court on 5th June to finalise the case. In the week before our case we met our barrister and junior council and our solicitors Gallagher and Shatter to arrive at a settlement rather than go back to the Supreme Court. This we did on the following agreement:
1. The state to pay us a sum we discussed in settlement of all outstanding issues, without admission of liability.
2. The state to pay all cost of High Court, European Court and Supreme Court.
3. The sum paid not to be disclosed by or on behalf of either side.
This we agreed and the case closed on 5th June, 1991. It was a six and a half year battle, but a very worthwhile one for us.
Our question at the time was if all married women would benefit and we were assured that the European Judgement could be relied upon by all married women in the state. It took a further 3 years before the Department of Social Welfare did the honourable thing and decided to pay the married women all they were owed. At the moment thousands of women are getting major sums of money plus interest due on the monies held over the years and by 1997 all arrears should be paid.
For myself and Ann Cotter this was a wonderful achievement as so many people benefitted from it. This case has gone down in the history books of Ireland and Europe. Theses have been written on the case, most newspapers, magazines and books have done stories on same. From having been involved on the case I have come in line for awards - Kildare person of the year '92 - M'lady Erin Winner in '93 and Civic Award from Leixlip Town Commission.