Two former executives in Gurranabraher Credit Union in Cork yesterday reached a settlement concerning their sacking last December.
The action was taken by the former manager and former deputy manger of the Credit Union in Cork city who claimed they were wrongfully dismissed from their posts.
Yesterday was the second day of the hearing which had been expected to be very protracted.
Alec Good, Hillcourt, Donnybrook, Douglas, Cork and his former deputy Ms Patricia O'Neill, Presentation Road, Gurranabraher claimed they were wrongfully dismissed from their posts.
Having heard two appeals from Mr Justice Kearns spread over two days to endeavour to settle the dispute outside the court without entering a protracted hearing of the case a settlement was announced shortly after 3 p.m yesterday. Both sides said the details of the settlement were confidential.
When the case resumed yesterday morning Mr Justice Kearns again appealed to the sides to endevour to settle the dispute outside the court warning that the case was going to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and possibly even more than that if it was protracted.
After Mr Good had begun his evidence on the first day of the hearing on Tuesday the judge asked the sides as they adjourned the days proceedings to consider carefully a resolution of the issues outside the court.
A spokesman for Gurranabraher Credit Union said they had made an ex-gratia payment to Mr Good and Ms O'Neill purely in recognition of their services to the Credit Union. Neither Mr Good or Ms O'Neill will be re-employed by the Credit Union and will bear their own costs in relation to the interlocutory proceedings in the High Court.
He said the Union had always acted appropriately in the matter of the termination of the employment of Mr Good and Ms O'Neill and was obviously delighted that the proceedings had been struck out.
In a joint statement Mr Good and Ms O'Neill said they were delighted they had been fully and absolutely vindicated . The substantial settlement in both cases fully confirmed the merits of their cases.
" We thank deeply our family, friends and legal teams for the tremendous support and encouragement throughout the entire matter. We are both extremely happy in the knowledge that the successful outcome of the cases emphatically vindicates all the steps we have taken".