The High Court has fixed €79,100 as the amount of contempt fines owed by Enoch Burke as of 24 February 2025 and made a conditional garnishee order concerning his salary. The order is not yet permanent: Burke is to have an opportunity to make submissions before the court decides whether to do so.
In a judgment delivered on 21 February, Mr Justice Nolan said Burke had continued to attend Wilson’s Hospital School after it reopened on 6 January, despite a permanent injunction prohibiting him from entering the premises. The judge said Burke had not purged his contempt and had paid none of the fines imposed by the court.
The judgment concerns enforcement of those fines and possible future penalties. Burke’s correspondence repeated his claim that the dispute arose from his religious beliefs and the school’s instruction about pronouns. The judge rejected that account, saying the matter before the court was compliance with a court order. The judgment records Burke’s position and the court’s response; it does not determine a new dispute about the underlying instruction.
The court found it had power to make a conditional garnishee order to enforce contempt fines. It said the Attorney General was the appropriate party to apply for enforcement in the public interest, and made the Attorney General and the Ministers for Education and Finance notice parties. The court gave the Attorney General liberty to apply to attach debts, including salary owed or accruing from the second and third notice parties, towards the fines.
The €79,100 figure comprises €23,800 previously fixed as due by 1 March 2023 and €55,300 in fines accruing from 2 March to 19 May 2023, calculated at €700 a day for 79 days. The judgment says Burke’s salary was paid by the State on the school’s instruction. It records the school’s estimate of his gross annual salary as about €48,000; the judge said Burke had refused an earlier request to provide details of his assets and income from grinds.
The judge said he intended to increase the fine to €1,400 for each day or part-day that Burke remained in contempt. Before that issue is decided, the school must provide sworn evidence of Burke’s actions, and Burke must file an affidavit setting out his assets and income by close of business on 28 February. The matter was listed to return to court at 10am on 7 March 2025.