A female Defence Forces recruit has lost her High Court challenge to her discharge from the Army on grounds that she was below the requisite physical standard.
Sharon Canavan (23), Stonebridge Park, Rochfort Bridge, Co Westmeath, had claimed she was declared unfit for the Army because of a cyst on her ovary and despite being the only female recruit of her platoon to have completed a route march from the Glen of Imaal in Co Wicklow to Glenmalure.
She claimed that she was told by an army medical officer in late 2001 that she was below army physical standards because of a cyst on her ovary, which cyst, she said, a surgeon had described as neither a major nor worrying problem.
Ms Canavan was discharged after the Defence Forces medical board upheld the finding of a medical officer that she was below the requisite physical standard.
In his reserved judgment rejecting Ms Canavan's challenge to that decision, Mr Justice John Quirke said the court would not intervene to disturb the "lawful exercise" by the medical board of its jurisdiction.
It was not the function of the court to supervise the conduct by the board of its day-to-day affairs, the judge said. In the absence of an allegation of "unreasonableness", it was not the function of the court to direct the board as to the relevance or significance of particular medical evidence or material.
Ms Canavan now faces a bill for the costs of two of the three days of her High Court hearing. Mr Justice Quirke allowed her costs for just one day of the action.
During the hearing, the court was told Ms Canavan was posted in June 2001 to the 6th Infantry Battalion based at O'Neill Barracks in Co Cavan and began her recruit training with the 74th recruit platoon in Cavan. Of four female recruits, Ms Canavan was the only one to complete the training.
On October 1st, 2001, a week before she was due to pass out as a soldier, she was told she would not be doing so due to her fitness level.
She was given the option to go back to another platoon to complete the training and she trained with a Mullingar-based platoon until November 19th, 2001, when she received medical attention for a pain in her side and was diagnosed with a cyst on an ovary. She underwent a medical procedure and was later told the cyst was temporary and she would not require surgery or medication.
She was discharged in February 2002.