Garda Commissioner and Minister appeal finding that 35-year age limit for Garda trainees is discriminatory

The Garda Commissioner is expected to give evidence next week in an appeal to the Labour Court against a decision a regulation preventing people aged over 35 joining the Garda force as trainees is discriminatory.

In long-running litigation extending over some 17 years, including references to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Brian Fitzpatrick and Ronald Boyle, whose legal representation was provided by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), had challenged the age limit.

The hearing of their case before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was put on hold for several years pending judicial review proceedings in the High Court which resulted in appeals to the Supreme Court and ultimately to the CJEU.

The EU’s highest court was asked to rule whether the WRC had the authority to disapply Irish law that conflicts with existing EU law. Its landmark 2018 ruling that the WRC had such power cleared the way for the two men’s cases to proceed.

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Both men sought to join the Garda Síochána between 2005 and 2007 but were refused entry based on the Garda regulations of 1988 setting the upper age limit for entry as a trainee at under 35.

They complained to the Equality Tribunal, the predecessor to the WRC, that the maximum age limit for entry amounted to age discrimination under the Employment Equality Act 1998, the national legislation giving effect to the EU Framework Directive on equal treatment in employment.

The core issues were whether the Garda Commissioner could show the upper age limit was justified as a genuine occupational requirement or a legitimate employment policy under the relevant EU and national law provisions.

In November 2020, the WRC found the age limit as applied to the men’s applications was not proportionate and was discriminatory. The commissioner, it held, had not shown there would be a significant number of members of the Garda unable to perform physically demanding tasks if the upper age limit did not apply, or that the age restriction could be justified on grounds of training requirements or the need for a reasonable period of employment before retirement.

A sum of €12,700, the maximum compensation possible under the equality legislation then in force, was awarded to each man for “the distress suffered as a result of this discrimination”.

Following the WRC decision, the IHREC urged the Minister for Justice to review the age limit to bring it into step with other police forces internationally, including in the UK, and in line with the findings of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland that the age limit was outdated, should be scrapped and “age diversity should be encouraged”.

However, an appeal was lodged by the Garda Commissioner and Minister to the Labour Court against the WRC decision. It is due to be heard over two days next week.