A former secretary in the Mexican embassy has abandoned her challenge to an Employment Appeals Tribunal decision that the embassy was immune to Ireland's unfair dismissals legislation.
After several hours of legal argument, Mr Roddy Horan, counsel for Ms Deirdre Geraghty of Brookfield Court, Kimmage, Dublin, told the Circuit Court that she had resolved her dispute with the embassy.
He told Judge J.D. O'Hagan that both parties had agreed to her appeal being struck out, with an order affirming the tribunal's ruling.
Mr Tom Mallon, for the embassy, had submitted that the long established principle of sovereign immunity, recognised by Ireland under international law, put his client beyond the jurisdiction of the Irish courts.
Mr Horan said Ms Geraghty had a good employment relationship from her appointment in 1993 until May 1997 when she told her employers she was pregnant.
She would tell the court she had been dismissed a month later by the ambassador, Mr Daniel Dultzin, who had told her she could not have the job and the baby. After a two-week pregnancy-related illness he had telephoned her and subjected her to a tirade of abuse.
Mr Mallon said this version of events was hotly disputed.
Mr Horan submitted that a clause in her contract made the Mexican Republic answerable to Ms Geraghty in the Irish courts. It conferred on her "any rights she might have under local legislation" and committed both parties to an agreement "to abide by local provisions on labour matters and/or any applicable international law".
Mr Mallon said any order of the Circuit Court, such as reinstatement under the Unfair Dismissals Act, would be unenforceable because there was no mechanism for enforcement.
Mr Horan said if the embassy failed to comply with an order of the Irish courts, the opprobrium that would be visited upon the state would suffice.
The settlement was announced following talks between both parties.