The allocation of foreign postings following Ireland's election to the UN Security Council was not discriminatory, according to the Equality Tribunal (ODEI).
The tribunal's ruling came in response to a claim by an official in the Department of Foreign Affairs that he was discriminated against on the grounds of gender, marital status, family status and age in in relation to foreign postings.
The official, not named in the ruling, said that when he was seeking a foreign posting he was asked if he would be accompanied by his wife. Other candidates were not asked this, and the question was discriminatory, he said.
The Department responded that the complainant was asked this in the context of his health, which had been poor during his posting abroad in the 1990s. As a result he was hospitalised in 1996, following a premature return home.
The equality officer accepted this, although she criticised the Department for not explaining this to the complainant at the time.
The official also made a number of complaints about the way he was treated by the Department, and about its system of family allowances for diplomats working abroad.
He claimed that officials with children were treated more favourably than those without, and that younger and female diplomats were treated more favourably following Ireland's election.
In relation to the appointment of officers to First Secretary positions following Ireland's election, he claimed that these did not go through the Department's own planned postings system. The manner in which the postings were made had the effect of discriminating against officers who were male, older, married and/or had children.
He said many appointees were women who happened to be at the posts because their spouses were already there. This discriminated on the grounds of sex, marital and family status and age.
The Department responded that decisions on postings to Geneva and New York could not have been made until Ireland knew of its election to the Security Council.