The High Court has ruled that Garda Inspector Tom Quinn’s promotion should take effect from 7 January 2019, after finding that a false complaint had delayed his advancement by more than seven months.
In a judgment delivered on 11 April 2022, Mr Justice Charles Meenan held that the Commissioner’s refusal to backdate the promotion was unreasonable. He said the delay had left Quinn facing losses in pay and pension rights, delayed his eligibility to seek further promotion and affected his standing.
Quinn was placed 77th on a promotion panel in 2018. He was due to be among those promoted to Inspector on 7 January 2019, but the Commissioner deferred his promotion while GSOC investigated a complaint arising from an incident on 3 December 2018.
The complainant alleged that Quinn refused to leave his property, waved a firearm at him and his wife, and deliberately shot him in the foot. Quinn gave a different account, saying he fired at a dog attacking him and that the bullet ricocheted and injured the complainant. The judgment noted that the accounts differed on almost every detail.
GSOC wrote to Quinn on 19 July 2019 that it found no misbehaviour, considered the firearm discharge lawful and justified, and would take no further action on the complaint. It sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for directions on whether the complainant should be prosecuted for making a false statement. The judgment does not state the outcome of that referral. Quinn was promoted on 28 August 2019.
The Commissioner argued that the judicial review was out of time and that promotion decisions involved discretion. The judge rejected the time objection, finding that time ran from a 10 March 2020 letter identifying the complaint as the reason for the deferral. He said the Commissioner had relied on the ongoing investigation, rather than a general exercise of discretion.
The judge accepted that a promotion could reasonably be held while a serious complaint was being investigated. But after GSOC dismissed the complaint, he found that leaving the promotion date unchanged would penalise Quinn for being the subject of a false complaint and breach his right to equality under Article 40.1 of the Constitution.
Meenan J concluded Quinn was entitled to the relief sought, including backdating his promotion to 7 January 2019. He listed the case for mention on 25 April 2022 to make final orders. His provisional view was that Quinn should receive his costs, including reserved costs, with submissions invited by 21 April. The judgment does not record the final orders or costs decision.