Ex-Children’s Health Ireland business manager resigns as part of deal to settle dispute
Approval has been obtained from two Government departments for a successful mediation process of an employment dispute between Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) and a former business manager, the High Court heard.It followed repeated complaints about the delay in approving the mediation deal between CHI and Anita Little over her purported dismissal in August 2025. She claimed she was dismissed as business manager as a result of an instruction by her superiors to delist 10 patients from the CHI spinal surgery waiting list. She said her dismissal followed a flawed investigation. She obtained a temporary injunction against dismissal which was later changed to an undertaking from CHI that it would not take any steps to dismiss her.READ MORESummer reading hitlist: New novels, classics and nonfiction books recommended by writersPatrick Freyne: The true and wonderful weirdness of Dubliners always surfacesMy teenage years: Some of it was fun. A lot of it was traumatic. A good bit of it was illegal Years later, one comment is still that little pebble in the shoe of Dublin hurling Successful mediation then took place with the CHI board approving the deal, but it still required the approval of the departments of Health and of Public Expenditure and Reform.Her barrister, Richard Kean, made several complaints to Judge Brian Cregan about the delay from the Government departments in approving the settlement. He said his client, who was being headhunted by other employers, was, as a result, unable to take up alternative employment, although she was still on the payroll of the CHI.On Thursday, the court was told the approval of the two departments had been obtained, that Little had now resigned as part of the deal in which Kean said she had received a very substantial sum as part of the settlement. Counsel said he was now seeking his costs of all the applications he had to make to court during a three-month delay between the settlement and the issuing of the departmental approvals. Among his reasons, he said, was a letter just a month ago in which CHI quoted from the Department of Public Expenditure stating it could not give a guaranteed timeline for approval and that, given the significant amount of money involved, the mediation “should never have taken place without prior sanction” from the department.Lorna Lynch, barrister for CHI, said it had been expressly stated at the outset of the mediation process that the approval of the two departments was required and CHI could not give any commitment in relation to that. No proper basis for the imposition of costs had been made, she said.The judge refused Kean’s application for costs, saying CHI could not be blamed for the delay and that, in the context of litigation, three months was not an unreasonable delay.He adjourned the matter to next month for the making of final orders.
