There is considerable pressure on Irish companies with Coronavirus. To add to this pressure, since 2008, many non-performing loans have been acquired from Irish banks by Vulture Funds who might be
Stephen O’Sullivan
I am a barrister practising in all areas of civil law including General Practice, Commercial/Chancery, Tort & Personal Injury Law and General Common Law. I have a particular expertise in employment law.
Recent Articles
Tenders and transfer of undertakings
Whether the winning of a tender amounts to a transfer of undertaking Suzen v Zehnacker Grebaudereinigung GmbH Krakenkausservice [1997] IRLR 255 is authority that the mere loss of a service contract
Social insurance fund and informal insolvency
The Protection of Employees (Employer Insolvency) Act 1984 provides for a range of payments to employees of insolvent companies from the Insolvency Fund. See government sites for information here and
Third-party funding of litigation and after the event (ATE) legal costs insurance
Third-party funding of litigation Litigation funding might fall foul of the rules against maintenance and champerty. Maintenance is defined as the giving of assistance or encouragement to one of
Proving bank debt
It is common for a bank employee to set out in affidavit or in oral evidence the basis for the debt and a calculation of the arrears. One defence a defendant might use is that the evidence does not
Construction Contracts Act 2013. To what extent will the adjudicator’s decision be open to challenge.
Ways to challenge the adjudicator's decision The procedures is similar to that apply to contracts for public works (CPW) before the Act came into force. Separate from this Act, where the State
Modular or Split Trials
A party may apply to have a trial split into parts– called split trials or modular trials. This is usually in order to save costs or to avoid inconveniencing witnesses. The most common application is
The Financial Services Ombudsman
Introduction The office of the financial services ombudsman (hereinafter FSO) was created by the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2004, which inserted sections into the
Objective Grounds Justifying the Renewal of Fixed Term Contract
Section 9 of the Protection of Employees (Fixed Term Workers Act) 2003 (hereinafter FTWA) provides inter alia that an employer cannot have two or more fixed term contracts where the aggregate duration
Insolvency of defined benefit pension schemes
Introduction Defined benefit schemes (hereinafter DB schemes) provide members with retirement and death benefits based on formulae set out in the rules of the scheme. Benefits are often based on a
Key defences in construction law cases
Construction litigation is complex. Not only are lawyers heavily reliant on expert reports, but there are legal defences that will be raised, which must be overcome before those reports even become
When an employee joins the competition
Where an employee leaves to compete against the employer there are four possible causes of action the employer could seek to rely upon. Firstly, the employer might point to a restrictive covenant and
The Employment Injunction
Injunctions to restrain a dismissal When an employee is dismissed generally the employee will sue for unfair dismissal in the EAT. However, there are circumstances where an employee will attempt to
Bullying and harassment at work
A synopsis of more recent stress at work and bullying cases Bullying is defined in the Industrial Relations Act Code of Practice as "Workplace Bullying is repeated inappropriate behavior, direct or
Dismissal for retirement age
Litigating when an employee is dismissed on reaching retirement age Section 34 of the Employment Equality Act 1998 (EEA) makes it not unlawful on the age ground for an employer to fix retirement age
