The Supreme Court has been informed that dismissing a Gaelscoil headteacher was justified, following his confession to fabricating student registration numbers. A reinstatement order that was given to him needs to be reversed, argued Cliona Kimber SC, representing Gaelscoil Moshíológ in Gorey, Co Wexford’s board of management (BOM). Nine years ago, Aodhagán Ó Súird was ruled to have been unjustly sacked, and ordered to step back into his role last year, an action predicated on legal oversights. Kimber believes the case should return to the Labour Court in alignment with correctly observed legal standards and guidelines set out by the Supreme Court.
Kimber pointed to the vital trust and faith between a school, its headteacher, and its board. She claimed that both the High Court and Labour Court neglected to consider these aspects when demanding Mr Ó Súird’s reinstatement. His tampering with registration data led to the allotment of an additional teacher to the school and caused the Department of Education to seek reimbursement from the institution for funds misappropriated.
Pádraic Lyons SC, representing Mr Ó Súird, countered that his client’s dismissal by the previous BOM was both unjust and disproportionate and that the two courts were correct in ruling this. He highlighted that the board was well aware of his client’s tampering with enrolment numbers, which was intended to help the school and not Mr Ó Súird himself. Lyons insisted that despite a two-year suspension and further delay due to hold-ups in the Labour Court appeal, as well as the detrimental impact on his client’s life and wellbeing, the rulings and reinstatement order were reasonable and equitable.
A five-member Supreme Court panel is deliberating after spending a full day hearing an appeal from the BOM against the High Court’s order to reinstate Mr Ó Súird in his role last year. The appeal identifies the Labour Court as the defendant, with both the Department of Education and Mr Ó Súird as notice parties. The complex legal concerns raised could potentially influence future disciplinary and employment-related legal disputes.
The opposition is also against the High Court’s decree mandating the school to cover the top-level legal expenses of Mr Ó Súird. The previous Board of Management (BOM), which chose to terminate Mr Ó Súird, has been replaced and a fresh school manager has been installed.
Last July, Mr Justice Brian Cregan of the High Court issued a judgement heavily sceptical of the previous BOM, ruling against its appeal regarding a 2019 Labour Court verdict that established Mr Ó Súird was wrongly dismissed in 2015. Following a “mutually agreed” compromise with the Department of Education, conveyed by Carol Scott, the school’s principal since July 2016, the judge ordered Mr Ó Súird’s reinstatement last August.
Mr Ó Súird was sent on administrative leave by the former BOM following an event in January 2012 where he physically dragged a sitting first-class student “towards me by his jumper to reprimand him”. The child’s parents acknowledged Mr Ó Súird’s apology and viewed the episode as “minor”. Still, subsequent complaints from other parents about it resulted in him being sent on administrative leave.
The HSE was informed of the occurrence by the board and concluded in November 2012 that it did not amount to physical child abuse, advising the school to conduct its own investigation aimed at preventing similar incidents. The High Court highlighted that the board began to examine other matters linked to the inflation of enrolment numbers forwarded by Mr Ó Súird to the Department of Education in 2009. He was suspended in May 2013 and dismissed starting in November 2015.
Mr Ó Súird asserted that the board knew and approved of his actions in relation to the enrolment numbers. He contended that record-keeping was a somewhat murky area back then with contrasting guidance between Department of Education circulars and the stipulations of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000.
The Workplace Relations Commission, Labour Court and High Court unanimously found he was unjustly terminated.
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