Joe O’Brien, the recently elected Green Party TD for Fingal, has won a discrimination case against Irish Rail over its failure to maintain working lifts at train stations in Balbriggan and Skerries. In a ruling published last week, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found O’Brien, a father of three, had been discriminated against under the equal status act on the basis of “family status”. It ordered Irish Rail to pay him €200 in compensation.

O’Brien claimed that he was unable to bring his young son, who was seated in a buggy, to the platform of Balbriggan train station on June 26 because the lift was broken. He also had trouble initially using the lift at Skerries station on the same day, although the station master