Ford Vindicated as Tribunal Case Collapses

10.56.34am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 4th Jul 2009

David Ford MLA has said that he has been completely vindicated by the collapse of a case taken to the Industrial Tribunal by an employee working for him and the Alliance Assembly Group. At the Tribunal hearing on 3 July, the Equality Commission withdrew its legal support for the employee, who then withdrew the case.

David Ford said:

"This case collapsed when our legal representatives were able to establish that there had been a totally inaccurate claim made on oath regarding educational qualifications. It was obvious that this claim was surprising, to say the least, when it was made in the claimant's cross-examination and there was no supporting evidence in many hundred pages of evidence. This was pointed out by my barrister at the Tribunal. However, the Equality Commission continued to support the claimant for a further three days of hearing, for two of which I was subject to cross-examination and for the third the Alliance Executive Director was giving evidence.

"The claimant may have to answer questions about lying on oath, but in some ways that is not the most important issue for the public.

"There are huge questions about the entire involvement of the Equality Commission supporting a totally spurious and malicious claim at all, at considerable public expense. There was never any substance to the claim. However, there are particular issues to be addressed as to why the Commission and its legal team added three further days expense to the hearing after the bogus claim of possession of a degree was made and questioned.

"The cost to the public purse will be huge: the cost of the Tribunal and the paperwork and the cost of lawyers for the claimant. I will certainly be asking my legal team to submit a claim for my extensive costs, having been comprehensively vindicated by the collapse of the case against me. This will not take any account of the time taken by several senior members of Alliance in preparing documents and appearing at the Tribunal. I agree entirely with the comments made by my colleagues Naomi Long MLA and Stephen Farry MLA, who were both subject to outrageous vilification but, despite this, emerge from this case with their integrity intact.

"It appears to me that the Equality Commission was so distracted by the possibility of a high-profile case against the Alliance Group and against me that the Commission's lawyers failed to consider properly the merits, or lack of merits, of the case. The Commission has many questions to answer."