Chris Dooley,
Industry and Employment Correspondent
An attempt to make a former Gaelscoil principal pay for the cost of an unfair dismissal claim has been rejected by the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
Mr Tomás Ó Dúlaing, who was sacked from Gaelscoil Thulach na nÓg in Dunboyne, Co Meath, after a row over religious instruction, had taken a case for unfair dismissal.
He withdrew the claim, however, when it came before the tribunal last April. In a majority decision just published, the tribunal rejected an application for costs by the school.
It is rare for the Employment Appeals Tribunal to award costs to any party, but it can be done in cases where a claimant is found to have acted "frivolously or vexatiously".
The tribunal, however, said there could be no contention other than that Mr Ó Dúlaing initiated his claim in the "normal and acceptable fashion".
It could not determine whether a case was vexatious without hearing all of the evidence, and this was not possible in this case as the hearing had not gone ahead. The tribunal was chaired by Mr Tony Halpin BL. In a dissenting opinion, a member of the tribunal, Mr Richard Keating, said it was his considered opinion that the claimant had acted vexatiously and that costs should be awarded to the school.
Mr Ó Dúlaing was controversially dismissed in August 2002 after publicly opposing a management directive that all religious teaching take place within school hours.
He claimed this would lead to segregation as Protestant children would have to leave the classroom while Catholic pupils received instruction on matters of doctrine.