‘Imagine the uproar if we had two private secretaries, we live in the real world’, says former Minister, Kathleen Lynch, in relation to the ongoing controversy over Minister John Halligan. She was responding to comments by Richard Grogan, Employment Law Specialist, who, citing employment law said that staff shouldn't expected to work longer hours than they are contracted for. He made his comments in the context of expectations that Ministers may have of their staff and private secretaries to make themselves available to the Minister outside of regular working hours, whilst discussing the controversy over Minister John Halligan asking an official if she was married in a job interview
Speaking with Ivan Yates on The Hard Shoulder, Kathleen Lynch went on to say, 'politics tell us that Ministers and TD's have to keep the staff to what's allowable...when that phone call comes it's usually the private secretary that gets the first call then the private secretary then phones you that could be at 11 o'clock at night or 6 in the morning...I'm sure she knew what to expect, before she applied for the job, so I don't think that comes into it. I'd say she's around a lot of private secretaries, I'd say she's well enough up in the organisation and long enough in her job to know what's expected of her and she still applied, so I don't think that argument holds water.'
Kathleen Lynch went onto say, she didn't think Minister Halligan should resign, but what he did was most inappropriate.
Minister John Halligan has said he “regrets” asking an official if she was married in a job interview last year, the controversy resulted in The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, being told to pay €7,500 in compensation to the senior official who was deemed to have been discriminated against. Mr Halligan said of the incident that it was “an innocent mistake”.
Well Ivan discussed how serious an issue this is for the Minister and if there would be further consequences and discussed the employment law pertaining to what he said with Richard Grogan, Employment Law Specialist and Solicitor and Kathleen Lynch, Former Minister of State for Primary Care, Mental Health and Disability.
