Courts

Supreme Court finds decision to reinstate school principal was wrong

Labour Court made order in relation to Aodhagán Ó Suird and Gaelscoil Moshíológ in Gorey and High Court directed his return to role from last August

The five-judge court said the Labour Court had erred in law in finding Aodhagán Ó Suird should have been re-engaged. Photograph: Collins Courts
The five-judge court said the Labour Court had erred in law in finding Aodhagán Ó Suird should have been re-engaged. Photograph: Collins Courts
Aodhan O'Faolain
Wed Jul 31 2024 - 17:38

The Supreme Court has found the Labour Court was wrong to order the reinstatement of a Co Wexford Gaeilscoil principal to the job he had been removed from a decade ago.

The five-judge court said that while the Labour Court was entitled to find that Gaelscoil Moshíológ’s board of management had unfairly dismissed Aodhagán Ó Suird in 2015, it had erred in law in finding that he should have been re-engaged.

Giving the court’s decision, Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell said given the “inordinate amount of time that has already elapsed” in this case it would “not be appropriate” to set aside the Labour Court’s decision, which was upheld by the High Court’s Mr Justice Brian Cregan.

The Chief Justice also noted that, arising out of the High Court’s decision in the case last year, Mr Ó Suird, whose dismissal arose over allegations he had inflated enrolment figures at the Gorey school, has been back in the position for almost a year and the person who previously acted in that position has left the school.

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The High Court directed that Mr Ó Suird be re-engaged as the school’s principal from August 4th last.

The Workplace Relations Commission and Labour Court previously found that Mr Ó Suird had been wrongly dismissed by the board and ordered his reinstatement in 2017.

The board, represented by Cliona Kimber SC, instructed by Mason Hayes and Curran solicitors, appealed to the Supreme Court on points of law including that the Labour Court had erred in its findings. The Labour Court was the respondent to the Supreme Court appeal, while Mr Ó Suird, who opposed the appeal, was a notice party.

Giving the court’s ruling on Wednesday, Mr Justice O’Donnell, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley, Mr Justice Maurice Collins and Mr Justice Brian Murray agreed the Labour Court did not give proper consideration to the exceptional nature of the remedy of reinstatement or to the practicality of such re-engagement.

The impact of the decision on the school, and the person who had been appointed as school principal following Mr Ó Suird’s dismissal, was not properly taken into account by the Labour Court, the Supreme Court also found.

The decisions of the High Court to uphold the Labour Court to order his reinstatement were made in excess of proper jurisdiction, the Chief Justice said. Any decision on the exceptional remedy of re-engagement to the original position requires reasoning and justification by reference to the circumstances, he said.

The Supreme Court overturned several High Court orders made in Mr Ó Suird’s favour, including that all arrears of pay and entitlements he was due, be paid to him. Those sums must now be repaid to the board.

The court also set aside Mr Justice Cregan’s ruling around Mr Ó Suird’s legal costs, including an order that the costs should be paid by the board on the “practitioner-client” basis, which is a higher scale than the normal legal fees.

The dispute arose after Mr Ó Suird was put on administrative leave in 2012 following a complaint that he had pulled a first-class student by the jumper to remonstrate with the boy. The boy’s parents accepted his apology, but other parents made complaints that led to his suspension in 2013 and his dismissal in 2015.

The Health Service Executive found in 2012 that the matter did not involve the physical abuse of a child and told the school to investigate the matter itself. The board then began to investigate claims that Mr Ó Suird, who founded the school in 2002, had inflated school enrolment figures to the Department of Education in 2009. That resulted in a disciplinary process, which ultimately resulted in his dismissal.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Cregan strongly criticised the board’s treatment of Mr Ó Suird and said he suffered a terrible injustice. He said that when the matter was before various forums the board had engaged in an “unprincipled attempt to blacken his name”. The board denied all allegations of wrongdoing against it.