Founders’ Discrimination Claim Against Enterprise Rejected

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has for the second time dismissed a discrimination claim made by three start-up founders against Enterprise Ireland. The founders were Mark Keenan, Michael O’Reilly and Robert Yorke from the sharing economy platform LendRB Ltd and they accused Enterprise Ireland of discrimination following comments made by its panel during an interview for government investment in May 2022.

The owners claimed that they were told by the panel that their start-up lacked sufficient diversity. “We were stunned by that remark. Although it was disagreeable, none of the panellists refuted the comment. They seemed to concur with it,” stated Mr. Keenan, LendRB’s CFO.

Clients from Longford, according to Keenan, do not seem to get any financial support from Enterprise Ireland. Additionally, he noted that the allocation for the Midlands is three times less than what their population share would imply. He contrasted this with Dublin, where the panel appeared to be based, which received twice the funding relative to their population.

In response to the claim, Enterprise Ireland’s lawyer, Niamh McGowan BL, pointed out that the case had previously been dismissed by the WRC in 2023. The reason for rejection was that it was statute-barred – the claim was submitted after the statutory deadline and was referred by a corporate entity, which is not permitted to file an equality claim.

Mr. Yorke insisted that the discrimination was directly against themselves, not against their company. He added, “The only shareholders in the business were us and we were personally affected by the prejudice.”

In the same vein, Mr. O’Reilly stated, “Even though we weren’t directly employed by Enterprise Ireland, we were rated by its criteria and applying for their CSF (Critical Start Fund) financial support, and as such, the issue of our employment is irrelevant.”

During a previous hearing, the original complaint form against Mr. Keenan was altered by adjudicator Niamh O’Carroll to cite the corporation rather than Mr. Keenan himself. This variation, proposed by him, emphasised that the organisation should be held liable instead of him personally. At that time, Mr. Keenan was recovering from a motor vehicle accident in Thailand, and requested a delay in the legal proceedings, as heard by the tribunal.

During a recent hearing in November, his associate, Mr Yorke, stated that Mr. Keenan was potentially unfit to make such a decision due to being under medication from a severe motor accident. Adjudicator Niamh O’Carroll informed him she understood the situation, and the decision had taken it into account.

In her previous judgement, which was made public by the WRC in September 2023, Ms O’Carroll took note of Mr. Keenan’s medical report from a doctor in a Bangkok hospital. The report detailed severe injuries, including a deep gash on his right knee and multiple superficial wounds across his arms, right leg, and foot, and advised him to rest for 15 days.

However, when queried by Ms O’Carroll about his prescribed medication, Mr. Keenan retorted that it was not her place to question him on such personal matters. Ms O’Carroll’s report indicated her disbelief in Mr. Keenan’s inability to continue with the proceedings and cited inappropriate and offensive email communications from him towards herself and the WRC.

When she labelled his previously disrespectful conduct as utterly disgraceful, Mr. Yorke attributed it to stress. Ms. O’Carroll expressed her astonishment at Mr Keenan’s behaviour before, during, and after the hearing. Mr. Keenan responded by accusing Ms. O’Carroll of making a defamatory remark, to which she replied that her statement was a part of the verdict and she won’t revisit it. Mr. Keenan then mentioned ‘Labour Court’.

In her ruling, released today, regarding the latest grievance, Ms O’Carroll recited her initial conclusions and stated that the fresh accusation was “duplicate”. “I am unable to identify a distinct fact which could permit another judgement on this grievance. Hence, the grievance does not stand,” she penned, dismissing the grievance under the Employment Equality Act. The Workplace Relations Commission has for the second time dismissed the case brought forth by three founders of a start-up who alleged that Enterprise Ireland discriminated against them. The plaintiffs claimed that they were told during a state investment interview that they “lacked adequate diversity”.

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