A case taken by an employee against the State’s Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA) has cost the organisation almost 334,000, correspondence with a Dáil committee shows.
The CEA ensures businesses comply with company law and enforces the legislation in the Republic’s civil and criminal courts.
The agency has spent 333,851 on Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) proceedings taken by an employee last year, says a letter from CEA chairman Ian Drennan to the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts.
Lawyers involved in the case earned a total of 275,226, with 190,236 of this going to solicitors, 55,043 to senior counsel and 30,147 to a barrister, the letter states.
An internal investigation and appeal cost 58,425, the correspondence shows.
Drennan notes that the agency and staff member have since agreed a settlement.
However, the departments of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, and Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, had yet to approve that deal when Drennan wrote the letter on March 26th.
The case was still before the WRC at that time, although it had been adjourned.
“It follows, therefore, that at this time, the CEA has not incurred any settlement costs,” notes Drennan.
If the Government does not approve the settlement, the hearing will go ahead at the WRC, he adds.
Drennan states that the CEA had applied to have it heard in private and asks that the Committee of Public Accounts not publish the letter.
The agency did not...
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