Work

Start-up founders claim discrimination over ‘lack of diversity’ comment

Enterprise Ireland says claim falls as it was dealing with corporate entity and men had no employment status with agency

Three company founders claim they were discriminated against by a comment in a meeting with Enterprise Ireland. Photograph: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Stephen Bourke
Tue Oct 24 2023 - 11:41

The founders of a start-up business claim they were discriminated against because an Enterprise Ireland representative allegedly told them they “didn’t have enough diversity” when they sought State backing for their venture.

Controversy arose at the hearing on Monday, when a Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator said the conduct of one of the founders had been “nothing short of disgraceful” the last time he was before the tribunal – a remark branded “defamatory” by the man.

Mark Keenan, Michael O’Reilly and Robert Yorke, the owners of sharing economy platform LendRB Ltd, have brought discrimination complaints against Enterprise Ireland under both the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000.

The diversity remark is alleged to have been made by a member of an Enterprise Ireland panel who interviewed the three complainants in relation to their application for funding under the Competitive Start Fund on an unspecified date.

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The exact details of their complaints and what specific protected grounds the men are relying on were not outlined at a preliminary videoconference hearing on Monday. A previous case challenging the rejection of LenderRB’s Competitive Start Fund application in May 2022 referred to allegations of discrimination on both gender and geographical grounds..

Enterprise Ireland has argued the matter had already been ruled on when the WRC rejected a previous complaint, finding it was statute-barred both because it had missed the statutory deadline and because a corporate entity cannot refer an equality claim.

The original complaint had been amended by the adjudicator to refer to the corporate entity rather than Mr Keenan.

“I don’t think Mr Keenan was in a position to make that call as he was under medication. He was in a very serious road traffic collision,” Mr Yorke said on Monday.

“I got all that. I got all that information and that’s all dealt with in the decision,” adjudicating officer Niamh O’Carroll said.

“Labour Court,” Mr Keenan interjected.

The adjudicator said Mr Keenan’s conduct had been “nothing short of disgraceful” on the previous occasion. “I was quite taken aback by his approach, I have to say, not only before the hearing, but during the hearing and after the hearing,” she said.

“Excuse me, that’s a defamatory statement,” said Mr Keenan.

“It’s in the decision, I’m not going back over it,” Ms O’Carroll said.

Jurisdiction

Niamh McGowan, appearing for Enterprise Ireland instructed by A&L Goodbody, said the application for funding referred to in the Equal Status Act complaint had been in the name of the limited company and not the three men.

Robert Yorke’s name was the only one which appeared on the Enterprise Ireland funding form, so neither Mr Keenan nor Mr O’Reilly could claim to have been discriminated against, counsel added.

The Employment Equality Act claim advanced by the complainants was also statute-barred, Ms McGowan said, as no employment relationship existed between the parties and the funding application interview was not going to lead to an employment relationship.

Ms McGowan said the complainants “seem to conflate” the concept of Enterprise Ireland taking a 10 per cent equity stake in their company “with the idea that they would be employed”.

“I do take the point that we weren’t officially employed by Enterprise Ireland, [but] we were going through the course, we were being mentored, coached, we had a relationship with them that they have progressed us through to applying for CSF funding,” Mr O’Reilly said.

“It was the three of us that experienced the comment, it wasn’t the company that experienced the comment. Any company is made up of people and just because a company applied for something doesn’t mean three individuals can’t be discriminated against,” he added.

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