A TEACHER at a Dublin secondary school will have to serve a week-long suspension from his duties after the High Court dismissed his application for a stay until his claim that he is entitled to appeal the sanction has been determined.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke yesterday refused to grant Pierce Dillon, Harcourt Green, Dublin, a teacher at the Catholic University School, Leeson Street, Dublin, which is run by the Marist Fathers, a stay on the week-long suspension imposed on him over alleged misconduct, until the High Court decides his case.
Last Tuesday, the day after he was told by the school principal to leave the premises, Mr Dillon was granted a temporary High Court injunction preventing the implementation of the suspension.
Mr Dillon sought to appeal the decision to discipline him but was told that he had no right of appeal.
His legal team sought to extend the stay until his action, where he is seeking a court declaration that he is entitled to a right to appeal the board of management's decision to suspend him, has been ruled on by the court.
Yesterday's ruling means that Mr Dillon will now have to serve the suspension, with pay, which was imposed on him after a committee of inquiry investigation into complaints of alleged misconduct against him.
Mr Justice Clarke said yesterday he was satisfied to refuse to grant Mr Dillon an interlocutory injunction on the grounds that there was no evidence before the court at this stage to indicate that Mr Dillon had a right to appeal his suspension.
The judge said it was accepted that in disciplinary procedures agreed between the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) and the joint managerial body representing boards of management of secondary schools, there was a right to appeal in the case of a teacher's dismissal.
However, the judge said, there was nothing before him that indicated a right to appeal in the case of a suspension. The judge, who adjourned the matter to early next month, agreed with counsel for Mr Dillon, Mairéad McKenna, that the central issue in the case was a net one and he said he hoped the full hearing of the action could take place as soon as possible.
Ms McKenna had argued that Mr Dillon was entitled to a right to appeal his suspension to the trustees of the school.
Mr Dillon, a teacher with 28 years' experience who has been with the school for the last 16, was not present during yesterday's proceedings.
In March 2006 it was alleged that he had spoken to the school secretary in a disrespectful manner while waiting to speak to the principal.
Ms McKenna told the court that her client was informed on September 11th that the board of management had decided that he was to be suspended from all professional duties with pay for a week, with a written warning which included a number of preconditions for his future employment.
In an affidavit to the court, Diarmuid de Paor, deputy general secretary of the ASTI, said that in procedures agreed between the union and the joint managerial body representing boards of management, Mr Dillon was entitled to a right of appeal.
Counsel for the school, Tom Mallon, argued that Mr Dillon did not have a right to appeal what he described as "a modest sanction".
Counsel denied that the suspension was a serious matter or will have consequences for Mr Dillon's reputation.
In an affidavit to the court, Frank Daly, chairman of the school's board of management, said the school had complied fully with its contractual obligations.
Mr Daly said it was his belief that it would be "wholly inappropriate" that the court be asked "to involve itself in the fine detail of the management of the school and the relationship between the board of management and individual teachers".