Disability, Reasonable Accommodation and the Employer's Obligations: Nano Nagle School v Daly
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| Author | Mark Bell,Desmond Ryan |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12553 |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
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Modern Law Review
DOI:10.1111/1468-2230.12553
CASES
Disability, Reasonable Accommodation and the
Employer’s Obligations: Nano Nagle School vDaly
Desmond Ryan and Mark Bell∗
The duty on employers to provide reasonable accommodation is a well-established component
of disability discrimination legislation, yet it continues to generate litigation in many jurisdic-
tions. This article examines a recent decision of the Irish Supreme Court concerning the extent
of the employer’s obligations where, after having acquired an impairment, a worker is no longer
able to perform all of the functions of her original job. The case also addressed the question of
what procedures should be followedby an employer when considering the provision of reason-
able accommodation, as well as the need for cour ts to justify awards of compensation. The issues
in Irish law were intertwined with obligations arising from EU and international law instru-
ments. Therefore,the decision is pertinent for other jurisdictions confronting similar challenges.
INTRODUCTION
Since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, there has been a shift in the
global approach to disability rights. At its core, this recognisedthat the exclusion
of people with disabilities from participating in the labour market could not be
attributed to limitations caused by individual impair ment. Instead, exclusion
arose from the interaction of impairment with barriers, such as the built envi-
ronment,the way in which work is currently organised, or social attitudes (such
as prejudice and stigma).1This shift in approach, often summarised as reecting
a ‘social model’ of disability, demanded the dismantling of those barr iers.2To
this end, the concept of reasonable accommodation became a central vehicle
for driving such change.3The 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities (CRPD) denes this as:
necessary and appropriate modication and adjustments not imposing a dispropor-
tionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons
∗School of Law,Trinity College Dublin.
1K.Heyer,Rights Enabled – the Disability Revolution, from the US, to Ger many and Japan,to the United
Nations (Ann Arbor,MI: University of Michigan Press, 2015) 32.
2 R. Kayess and P.French, ‘Out of Darkness Into Light? Introducing the Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities?’ (2008) 8 Human Rights Law Review 1,6.
3 M.A. Stein, ‘Same Str uggle,Dierent Dierence: ADA Accommodations as Antidiscr imination’
(2004) 153 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 579,602.
© 2020 The Authors. The Modern Law Review© 2020 The Moder n Law ReviewLimited. (2020) 83(5) MLR 1059–1071
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