Coveney faces contempt of court claims over jobs

The High Court is to be asked on Friday to make orders directing Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney to show good cause as to why he should not be jailed for contempt of court.

Barrister Patrick O'Reilly told Mr Justice Sean Ryan yesterday that two Department of Agriculture employees believed the Minister had breached an undertaking to the court not to fill two senior positions they had applied for.

Technical agricultural officers Vincent Gormley and James Scott allege that when they took a court challenge, the Minister had breached the undertaking they claim he had given the judge.

Mr O’Reilly, senior counsel for both men, was yesterday granted leave by Judge Ryan to bring a motion on Friday seeking the attachment of the Minister to the proceedings and his committal to prison.

He said judicial review proceedings had already come before the court over the non-appointment of both his clients.

Undertakings
Mr O'Reilly said that as part of these proceedings the High Court had been given an undertaking that no one would be appointed to fill the positions until further order of the court. The Minister has denied that any such undertakings were given.

Mr Gormley, of Brownsgrove, Tuam, Co Galway, and Mr Scott, of Glinsk, Ballymoe, Co Galway, claim that on July 30th last the Minister had given an undertaking to the court that he would not appoint people to the inspector posts as advertised on April 12th or until their legal challenge had been determined.

At a court hearing last week, Mr O’Reilly said papers had already been prepared to facilitate an application for attachment and committal of the Minister but asked for an adjournment until yesterday to allow him to consider a letter from the department and to obtain further information about positions that had already been filled.

He said that despite the Minister’s undertaking it appeared the positions in question had been filled. The new information had also revealed there were four positions to be filled and three of them had already been signed off on.

Mr O’Reilly said the Minister was not prepared to give Mr Gormley and Mr Scott a further undertaking that the fourth position would not be filled before yesterday’s court hearing.

Prior to yesterday's application, the proceedings had stood adjourned until after a hearing by the Labour Relations Commission next month.

Eugene Regan SC, senior counsel for the Minister, had told the earlier hearing he strongly objected to a suggestion of a breach of an undertaking. The undertaking, he said, had related to an external advertisement process, while the issue before the court related to an internal advertisement process.