The Labour Court has directed the Department of Social Affairs to pay €10,000 compensation to a clerical officer after it found she was discriminated against on grounds of her disability.
The court said the decision not to promote Carmel Boyle to staff officer in the department's office in Dungloe, Co Donegal, was the result of a serious eye condition.
The court has also ordered the department to provide training for staff in its personnel department on the obligation to provide reasonable accommodation for staff with disabilities.
Ms Boyle joined the civil service in 1975 and was assigned to Donegal in 1990. Because of her disability she could not use a VDU and could only do non-computerised or manual work.
When a job as staff officer came up in Dungloe in 2002, she was the most senior candidate for the promotion. But her manager concluded in a report that she did not have the necessary qualities or knowledge for the job.
At a court hearing last month he accepted, however, that he had never formally raised these issues with Ms Boyle. The court said that from 1994 onwards the department's work was computerised and Ms Boyle became confined to a limited range of functions that could be undertaken manually.
The department did ask about the possibility of providing a larger computer screen but Ms Boyle's optician advised against it.
"Thereafter no consideration was given to any other initiatives which might allow the complainant to become more fully involved in the range of work appropriate to her grade," the court said.
It said promotion on seniority was an important feature of employment for civil servants at Ms Boyle's grade. A personnel officer gave evidence that it was quite unusual for someone to be rejected as unsuitable if they had the required service.
Ms Boyle's complaint came before the court as a result of the department appealing against a decision in support of Ms Boyle by an equality tribunal.