The High Court has refused Fiona Roche leave to bring a judicial review challenging the Teaching Council’s refusal to register her as a qualified post-primary teacher in Civic Social and Political Education and Religious Education. The court ruled that the application was brought well outside the three-month time limit and that no good and sufficient reason justified extending it.
Ms Roche remains registered with the Teaching Council through the further education route. She sought registration as a qualified post-primary teacher, but the Council’s Qualifications Panel found significant shortfalls in her qualifications. It said her 2017 Higher Diploma in Further Education did not cover the post-primary age range and that her experience, mainly in guidance counselling, did not bridge the gap in initial teacher education. For CSPE, the Panel noted an adviser’s assessment that her degree included 13.5 subject-specific credits, 46.5 short of the stated requirement. The Registration Review Group affirmed the Panel’s decision in a letter notified on 4 June 2019.
Ms Roche’s solicitors had said on 18 June 2019 that she intended to seek judicial review. The proceedings were not started until 27 July 2020. The court considered four explanations advanced for the delay: a data access request, Ms Roche’s health, counsel’s availability and pandemic-related restrictions on court sittings.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons found that the records sought through the data access request were not needed to formulate the challenge: Ms Roche had already received the Panel’s detailed reasons and advisers’ reports. The request was made on 26 August 2019, shortly before the deadline, and the court also found further delay after the Council responded. The judge said the affidavit evidence did not show that Ms Roche’s health prevented a prompt application during the relevant period. He rejected the claim that counsel’s summer availability excused the delay, noting there was no convention suspending the time limit and that counsel was not instructed promptly when the legal term resumed.
The court also rejected the argument that pandemic measures prevented an earlier application. The High Court continued to hear urgent judicial review applications, including remotely from the end of April 2020, and the necessary pleadings and affidavits were not finalised until 23 July 2020. The judge said the application was already out of time by the introduction of restrictions in mid-March.
The decision was limited to the leave application and extension of time; the court did not determine the substantive challenge to the registration refusal. Leave was refused. The proceedings were listed for 2 December 2021 to address costs.