Kildare has three employment sectors that few counties have together: semiconductor and advanced manufacturing around Leixlip and the north of the county, a logistics and distribution industry strung along the M7, the M4 and the M9 from Naas to Kildare town, and the equine sector of the Curragh, the stud farms and the racing yards. Each produces its own kind of dismissal. An unfair dismissal solicitor in Kildare also works, in practice, in Dublin, because the Workplace Relations Commission hears most of its cases at Lansdowne House in Ballsbridge or remotely and the Labour Court sits in the city. Our Dublin office at Ormond Quay Upper serves Kildare clients.
Unfair Dismissal Claims in Kildare
Semiconductor and advanced manufacturing employment in north Kildare brings the multinational model of dismissal: a documented performance framework, a probation period that must not exceed six months, or twelve in exceptional circumstances, under the European Union (Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions) Regulations 2022, and a remuneration package in which stock and bonus have to be separated from pay for the section 7 calculation of financial loss. Those cases turn on whether the procedure was genuine and the sanction proportionate. Logistics and distribution along the motorway corridors through Naas, Newbridge and Kildare town is the opposite: shift work, agency staff, short service and dismissals delivered at the end of a shift, so the first questions are whether the employee has the year of continuous service that section 2(1)(a) requires, whether a written probation period under section 3 excludes the claim, and whether a section 6(2A) exception brings it back in. The equine sector is different again. Stud farms and racing yards are often small employers with no written disciplinary procedure, seasonal peaks, sometimes accommodation tied to the job, and a dismissal that arrives in a conversation in the yard. There, the case is usually about the presumption of unfairness in section 6(1), the written reasons the employee can demand within 14 days under section 14(4), and the statutory notice of one to eight weeks owed once the employee has 13 weeks’ service.
Wherever in Kildare the job was, the complaint goes through the WRC eComplaint portal and the hearing is most often listed at Lansdowne House in Dublin or held remotely, which the WRC offers unless the interests of justice require otherwise; the WRC also sits regionally. Hearings are in public, the parties are named in the published decision unless special circumstances exist, and the WRC does not award costs, so each side pays its own. Mediation is offered first, free, voluntary and confidential, and most claims settle, which matters to an employee in a small equine business who would rather not be named in a published decision. Either party may appeal to the Labour Court within 42 days. The six-month time limit under section 8(2) runs from the date of dismissal as section 1 defines it, the date notice expired or should have expired, extendable to twelve months only for reasonable cause, so the first thing to fix is the date you were told and the notice given.
The Dublin office at The Ormond Building, 31-36 Ormond Quay Upper, is on the north quays beside the Four Courts Luas stop, a few stops from Heuston, where the trains from Kildare town, Newbridge, Sallins and Naas and Hazelhatch arrive, and a walk along the quays from the Maynooth line into Connolly. Most of the work runs on documents: the contract, the handbook, the dismissal letter, the disciplinary correspondence and the payslips, exchanged by email with calls and Zoom between, so a client in Athy is served exactly as one in Celbridge. Kildare employers defending a claim, from a distribution depot to a stud farm, get the same analysis from the other side: whether the stated reason is one of the fair grounds in section 6(4), whether the record shows a procedure that matched the Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures (S.I. 146/2000), and whether free WRC mediation or an early settlement makes more sense than a public hearing. We never act for both sides of the same dispute.
How We Work With Kildare Clients
Dismissal claims run on documents, phone, Zoom and email — the contract, the dismissal letter, the disciplinary correspondence, the payslips — so distance costs nothing: we act for clients in every county from our Dublin and Kilkenny offices, and WRC hearings themselves are increasingly held remotely. The first consultation is the same wherever you are: your position on the documents, the realistic routes, and the six-month clock running on you. Start with the Dismissal Claim Route Finder, and check your own deadline on the WRC Deadline Calculator.
Mary Molloy Solicitors advise on employment law. Nothing on this page is advice on tax or on social welfare entitlements — take that advice separately. WRC procedure and time limits are strictly applied, and a late complaint is usually a lost complaint. Take advice before resigning, before signing anything, and before any deadline passes.
Dismissed or Forced Out in Kildare?
One consultation establishes the legal position, the documents that decide it, the realistic routes and the deadlines - wherever in Ireland you worked.
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