Minister of State John Halligan has said he regrets asking a female official if she was married during a job interview.
The woman was awarded seven and a half thousand euro by the Workplace Relations Commission, which found she had been discriminated against by the Waterford Independent TD’s comments.
Mr Halligan, told the Irish Times that he asked the question to encourage a family-friendly workplace and did not realise that it was unacceptable.
The WRC hearing into the unidentified official’s claim of discrimination under the Employment Equality Acts heard Mr Halligan said to her at the interview: I shouldn’t be asking you this, but.... are you a married woman? Do you have children? How old are your children?
In her ruling , which found the woman was discriminated against, WRC Adjudication Officer Penelope McGrath found the comments to be outmoded.
