A 72-YEAR-OLD civilian Garda driver, who was forced to retire at the age of 70, has lost his bid to stay in his job.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in October found that Tom Ronan, 72, was discriminated against by An Garda Síochána on the grounds of age and faced “undue harsh” financial consequences as a result of mandatory retirement.

Following the ruling, Ronan went to the High Court to have it enforced in a bid to return to work. An Garda Síochána had appealed the WRC’s finding to the Labour Court, which has now overturned the judgment.

This means Ronan will be forced to retire. 

Deputy chairman of the Labour Court Alan Haugh ruled that the appeal succeeds and the WRC ruling is set aside. He found a the decision to apply the mandatory retirement age of 70 to the majority of public servants is in line with current legislation. 

Haugh stated that the Labour Court is bound by a previous ruling from the Supreme Court, which has upheld the State’s policy of a mandatory retirement age of 70 as being entirely consistent with the jurisprudence of the European Union’s Court of Justice.

He added that the Court finds that Ronan’s complaint that An Garda Siochana discriminated against him by compelling him to retire on reaching the age of 70 is not well-founded.

Ronan, who joined the Department of Justice in 2000 as a civilian driver at An Garda Síochána, had attempted to compare his circumstances to those of the cohort of public servants recruited between 2004 and 2012, including a number of his civilian driver colleagues, who do not have a mandatory retirement age.

Haugh said that this argument was “inappropriate” and that it is a “matter of public record” that the state has decided against retrospectively applying mandatory retirement ages to the cohort of public servants which pre-dates new legislation.

Ronan’s employment was transferred to An Garda Síochána in 2006. He told the court that he underwent a medical assessment in February 2023, received a five-year extension to his driving licence and was declared fit to perform the full range of duties.

A representative from the Department of Public Expenditure told the court that there is no discretion within the law to allow a public servant, who is subjected to the mandatory retirement age of 70 to work beyond that age.

A representative from the Garda’s HR and Pensions department said a number of considerations were given to making the retirement age 70 years old, including intergenerational fairness, experience within the public service, budgets and workforce planning.