The Irish court system has been deemed “fearfully expensive”, “truly accessible to increasingly few” and “alien” by a High Court judge. Mr Justice Max Barret made these remarks during a pre-trial hearing in the case of Owen Traynor v Guinness UDV Ireland. The applicant in this particular case is challenging the alleged breach of assurances made by Guinness UDV Ireland in relation to his pension entitlements following voluntary redundancy having worked with the Dublin based brewery for 35 years.
Guinness UDV Ireland had sought to have the application dismissed on the grounds of delay considering Mr Traynor took voluntary redundancy in 2002. Rejecting Guinness UDV Ireland’s arguments, Mr Justice Barret said it was “hardly surprising” Mr Traynor had delayed making his application to the court given that ‘we have now an expensive court system that remains alien to many and truly accessible to increasingly few’.
Mr Justice Barret also questioned Guinness UDV Ireland’s use of the European Convention on Human Rights to frame their arguments, arguing that Mr Traynor’s “inexcusable and inordinate” delay had breached Article 6 of the ECHR. Developing this point, Justice Barret conceded that although international corporations enjoyed an abundance of legal rights, their use in the current case were “odd, albeit not legally wrong” given they were extolled by a conglomerate to counter the application of a “man who just thinks he is not being paid the doubtless moderate pension that he believes himself to have been promised”.
The Judge dismissed Guinness UDV Ireland’s application for dismissal as he recognised that Mr. Traynor was seeking to find an alternative solution to the “fearfully expensive forum” that the Irish Courts had become, recognising they should only be used as a point of last resort. Mr Justice Barrett stated he believed that any delay in bringing the action was judicious and the case could proceed to trial.
Click here to read more about the case in the Irish Times.