Dr Bennet Eng says he does not feel triumphal about the landmark equality ruling which found that he was the victim of racial discrimination at work on pay grounds.
The Malaysian doctor, who is now working as a junior psychiatrist in another major Dublin hospital, says he had worried that taking an employment equality case might affect his future immigrant status. However, he had found the system under which one-year interships were allocated to European and non-European medical graduates in the main Irish hospitals to be so blatantly unfair and discriminatory that he felt compelled to challenge it.
"My purpose is not to be a crusader or anything like that," he said. "I just did this because I felt I was being abused. I'm a doctor, and my advice to patients is to fight addictions and problems, and I had to stand up for myself."
At the heart of Dr Eng's case is the system under which paid and unpaid internships are allocated. Graduates are chosen largely on merit to fill the salaried posts. However, in an attempt to meet what they maintained were the requirements of Irish and EU employment law, St James's Hospital prioritised nationals of Ireland or other European countries when allocating the paid posts.
So Dr Eng found himself working for nine months in St James's Hospital in Dublin alongside fellow graduates who were Irish. They earned a basic salary of €2,000 per month while he was entitled to overtime only and was not supplied with a contract of employment.
Dr Eng says he paid some €82,500 (£65,000) in fees to Trinity College Dublin over five years, in addition to the cost of accommodation, transport and books. "I thought that Ireland, as a member of the European Union, would be a civilised country and would treat people on the basis of their merits. The colour of your skin and the country of your birth should not have anything to do with it. Everyone should be judged on their merits", he said.
"We would see this as a landmark decision," said Mr Fintan Hourihan, director of industrial relations with the Irish Medical Organisation, the union which represents doctors. The IMO's advisory committee for non-European doctors would discuss the implications of the judgment later this month, he added.
The decision was also welcomed by the Equality Authority as a "timely and important affirmation of the rights of third-country nationals in Ireland".