The High Court has quashed a decision rejecting a garda’s appeal against her transfer from Killarney Garda Station to Tralee, finding that the Transfers Review Body failed to give reasons for its decision. The court refused to quash the original transfer decision.
Ms Justice Baker ruled that the only decision open to judicial review was the final decision in the internal appeal process, communicated to Sharon Maybury on 17 October 2013. Because Ms Maybury pursued internal reviews, the earlier decisions had merged into the final decision. The court rejected the Commissioner’s argument that the judicial review was out of time, while limiting the challenge to that final decision.
Ms Maybury, a member of An Garda Síochána, was directed on 5 June 2012 to take up duties in Tralee the following day. She said she had not sought the transfer and attended Tralee as a courtesy, not to accept it. Her first appeal was rejected on the basis that she had already accepted the transfer by attending. Further appeals were also rejected, with the Transfers Review Body issuing its decision in October 2013.
The Commissioner argued that Ms Maybury had agreed to move as part of a compromise related to what the respondent described as performance issues, and to receive greater supervision. At a May 2012 meeting, she was told, according to minutes exhibited in evidence, that she would not be confirmed in her position if she remained in Killarney. Ms Maybury and her father disputed that an agreement to transfer had been reached.
Justice Baker said she could not resolve that conflict of evidence. Whether Ms Maybury had willingly agreed to move was not for the High Court to determine in this judicial review. The judgment noted that she had brought a separate complaint to the Labour Relations Commission concerning an alleged unlawful change to her employment terms, but the court had not been given documentation from that process.
The court rejected claims that the Transfers Review Body relied on an incorrect view of the law or was biased. It accepted evidence from the body’s chair that the decision was not based on a conclusion that a retrospective appeal was unavailable. The judge also found no evidence that Assistant Commissioner Fintan Fanning took part in making the final decision, describing his relevant role as administrative.
However, the October 2013 decision gave Ms Maybury no idea why her appeal had failed. The court declared that it breached fair procedures and natural and constitutional justice, and made an order quashing that decision. It expressly refused to quash the original transfer from Killarney to Tralee.