Judgment held in case against Ministers

The High Court yesterday reserved judgment on an application by an official in the Department of Health for an order directing her promotion to the post of Principal Officer.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Morris, said he would give his decision "as quickly as I can" on the proceedings taken by Ms Dolores Moran, of Temple Road, Dartry, Co Dublin, an Assistant Principal Officer in the Department of Health, against the Ministers for Finance and Health.

Ms Moran claims she is entitled to an order directing her promotion to PO on foot of an agreement she claims to have reached with the Secretary General of the Department, Mr Jerry O'Dwyer, on December 23rd, 1996.

The Ministers deny the claims and Mr O'Dwyer has denied he reached any agreement on December 23rd, 1996 that he would promote Ms Moran to the post of PO. He claims he was not entitled to go outside existing procedures for promotion.

The seven-day hearing was told that Ms Moran, working to the assistant secretary, Mr Donal Devitt, had responsibility for all hepatitis C-related issues while working in the Blood Policy Division of the Department between 1994 and 1997. Mr O'Dwyer denied Ms Moran's claim that the failure to promote her was due to personal animus by him towards her following a conflict between the evidence given by both to the hepatitis C tribunal.

Replying yesterday to closing submissions made on behalf of the Ministers, Mr Hugh O'Neill SC, for Ms Moran, said it had been claimed that if Ms Moran's promotion went ahead, it would have brought the Department to a "standstill".

But the evidence did not go that far, counsel said. There was at most a "hint" of trouble if the appointment went ahead. According to Mr Donal Devitt, there was a previous occasion when an official was promoted without any consideration by the Department's Management Advisory Committee and Mr Devitt was not cross-examined about that.

"Can it be seriously suggested that because MAC is threatening to disrupt life in the Department that it is in the public interest that the Minister should accede and give way to threats and abdicate his responsibility to MAC?"

Counsel said it was for the court to decide what was the nature of the arrangement between Ms Moran and Mr O'Dwyer on December 23rd, 1996. He rejected the claim that there was no intention to enter into contractual arrangements and said both sides accepted that Ms Moran was considering her career and whether she should remain in the Blood Policy Division.

Even if the occurrences of December 23rd, 1996 were not a contract, they did amount to an arrangement which could, and did, give rise to Ms Moran having a legitimate expectation of promotion.

Mr O'Neill also rejected the respondent's claim that Mr O'Dwyer did not regard himself as acting in the persona of the Minister for Health when dealing with Ms Moran. Mr O'Dwyer said he undertook to accelerate her promotion and, if he was not acting in the persona of the Minister, he could not do that. It was also later stated in a letter of July 1997 that Mr O'Dwyer had discussed Ms Moran's promotion with the Minister and the Minister was fully supportive.

There were some 450 civil servants in the Department of Health, counsel noted. Was it being suggested the Minister must personally have an input into the appointment of them all?

It had also been suggested that Ms Moran must have known from her payslip that the allowance she was receiving was not the Acting Up allowance that would have placed her on the promotional ladder, Mr O'Neill said. But that argument could not be advanced.

Mr O'Dwyer had himself said the words "Perf. Pay" on her payslip would not alert anyone to the fact it was an allowance under the Merit Awards scheme. It was not disputed that Ms Moran had previously stated she was not interested in a Merit Award but wanted to advance her career.

Ms Moran referred clearly to an Acting Up position in a "crucial" letter of February 27th but Mr O'Dwyer had not brought to her attention that the letter was inaccurate, counsel also submitted.