The High Court has refused Deirdre Morgan leave to bring a judicial review over a submission made by the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board to a ministerial inquiry concerning her removal from an art teaching position.
Mr Justice Cian Ferriter ruled on 1 June 2022 that the application was an abuse of process and, separately, that it was “hopelessly out of time”. The court did not grant leave, so the proposed judicial review did not proceed.
Ms Morgan had sought an opportunity to respond to the Board’s January 2015 submission to a non-statutory ministerial inquiry. Her statement of grounds also sought to quash a ministerial order dated 15 June 2015 and the inquiry, which began in August 2014, and to obtain a declaration that the inquiry and resulting order were unfair. She said the submission contained prejudicial material and cited the Minister’s refusal to grant her request for an opportunity to reply.
The judge said the proceedings were an attempt to litigate again the issue of her removal from her teaching position, which he said had already been the subject of final and binding determinations by the Labour Court and the High Court. He referred to a separate judgment delivered the same day on applications by the Minister and the Board for Isaac Wunder and strike-out orders. The judgment in this leave application did not set out the details of those earlier determinations.
On timing, the court said Ms Morgan was on notice of the Board’s submission by 8 May 2015 because it was referenced in an inspector’s report furnished to her and her solicitors. The judge also relied on an affidavit sworn for the Minister by Claire Butler, which said the Minister had provided Ms Morgan with a copy of the submission on 15 June 2017 in response to a freedom of information request. The judge said she had not shown a good and sufficient reason for the delay before issuing proceedings.
The judgment records that Ms Morgan had believed an order made in November 2020 had already granted leave, but accepted at the hearing, after the order was explained, that leave had not yet been granted. The application was then considered on submissions from Ms Morgan and the Minister. The court refused leave.