It has been a costly and humiliating exercise for Ryanair. Not only has the company to pay £8,000 in compensation to a statutory body charged with countering discrimination, it will have to pay for a conspicuous advertisement stating its commitment to the principles of equality.
It will also have to review its recruitment policies.
But it could have been worse. The Equality Authority has not invoked its power to seek an injunction against the filling of the position pending the outcome of an equality investigation.
"This judgment focuses attention on the almost casual and accepted discrimination experienced by older people in the workplace," said Mr Niall Crowley, CEO of the Equality Authority, which brought the case.
In fact, age discrimination is widespread. He said that, after gender, it was the single greatest issue relating to employment raised by callers to the Equality Authority.
There were 900 queries to the office in December, a holiday month, and they were increasing. The majority were sorted out before they reached the level of official complaint to the Office of Equality Investigations.
The volume of complaints involving age is confirmed by Ms Melanie Pine, director of the office, which took over from the Employment Equality Authority. She said that 60 per cent of all complaints still related to gender but 15 per cent were on age grounds.
Until the introduction of the Employment Equality Act two years ago it was widely accepted that companies could - and sometimes should - favour young people in recruitment. According to Ms Pine, in Wales five or six years ago one company sacked all staff over 30. There was no comeback.
An EU directive due to come into force in 2003 will make that illegal throughout the Union. . But the Irish Act, and the landmark judgment issued by the equality officer, provide a benchmark for other EU states.
Both organisations also deal with discrimination in the provision of services. Any pub or club which excludes people on the grounds of age could find itself explaining itself to an equality officer.