Professor Philip Nolan will remain in his Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) director general post but will not physically return to work while awaiting the return of his High Court application, which has been provisionally scheduled for 11 days’ time.
Lawyers for the State-funded research agency said on Friday that it was agreeing to this arrangement and a short extension of the court’s earlier orders without prejudice to its position.
Mark Connaughton SC, instructed by McCann Fitzgerald solicitors, said there is “a lot to be argued about this case” when it comes for hearing.
Prof Nolan’s application for a substantial extension of the orders preventing his dismissal has been provisionally listed for June 11th.
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Mr Connaughton told the court the “only basis” for terminating Prof Nolan’s employment was by reference to the “express terms” of his written contract. The SFI board decided it was “not going down the road of invoking disciplinary proceedings”, he added.
Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy had on Thursday granted Prof Nolan an urgent injunction preventing his dismissal until the case returned on Friday afternoon.
Padraic Lyons SC, instructed by Daniel Spring & Co Solicitors, said on Friday that his client maintains he is entitled to physically return to work and that this is essential. However, he accepts that for practical reasons this will not be able to occur before his application returns.
Hearing Prof Nolan has been locked out from accessing his work emails, Mr Connaughton said there will be no issue with him gaining access for the purpose of filing further court documents.
The academic’s lawyers argued on Thursday there was “no conceivable justification” for his summary dismissal last Monday night. In an affidavit Prof Nolan said he was “vindicated” by an independent report that cleared him of bullying allegations made by five senior staff members over two days last December.
The report concluded there was inappropriate behaviour that could ground allegations of gross misconduct. Prof Nolan’s lawyers said he “emphatically” denies behaving inappropriately but was not given an opportunity to address this charge at a disciplinary hearing.
Instead, the board did a “volte-face” and terminated his position without warning last Monday, leaving him “devastated”, the court heard.
Prof Nolan came to public prominence during the pandemic while leading the National Public Health Emergency Team’s (Nphet’s) epidemiological modelling group. He is a former president of Maynooth University.
Prof Nolan, who assumed the director general role in January 2022, argues the claims made against him “without foundation” last December form part of an “orchestrated” bid to frustrate his efforts to substantially reform the organisation.
The Department of Research, Innovation and Science had acknowledged a need for change but, Prof Nolan said, there was “profound resistance” to this aim from the senior management team. He believes most of SFI’s 120 staff members are in favour of change.
He was appointed CEO-designate of Research Ireland – a planned merger of SFI and the Irish Research Council – in a move he believes amounted to an endorsement by Government of his leadership and strategy.
He said that with the correct support he can continue to perform his role to the benefit of SFI and Research Ireland. SFI and the research community it serves will be “seriously disadvantaged” if the amalgamation is delayed or stopped because of SFI actions, he said.
The SFI board is due to be dissolved in “very early course”, he added, and there is “no good or substantial reason” why he cannot continue to perform his role pending the amalgamation into Research Ireland.
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