A school principal has won her High Court challenge to a ministerial order directing her removal on grounds that she was “unfit for office”.
Catherine McSorley, Annamult, Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny, who was appointed principal of Kilkenny City Vocational School in 1999, had sued the minister for education and Co Kilkenny VEC over the order made by the Minister for Education on July 28th, 2011.
She also sought an injunction restraining the defendants from terminating her employment or stopping payment of her salary, benefits and pension.
The case arose after the then minister for education Mary Hanafin asked a retired assistant chief inspector in 2006 to carry out an inquiry into school management issues.
Her counsel, Ercus Stewart SC, claimed the Minister’s decision was irrational and her dismissal would end her chosen career. She had “turned the school around” from a state of decline and removal was ordered on the basis of a “fatally flawed and unsound” report, he said.
In his judgment yesterday, Mr Justice John Hedigan said Ms McSorley was entitled to an order quashing the Minister’s decision to dismiss her.
The complaints related to events that happened almost 10 years ago and all the evidence was that she had been doing a very good job since.