Wednesday, July 11, 2012

GOAL's John O'Shea secures High Court order preventing his suspension

John O'Shea set up GOAL 35 years agoThe Chief Executive of GOAL has been granted a temporary High Court order restraining any steps by the agency to suspend him or deal with his employment.

Lawyers for John O'Shea alleged in court that there was a "concerted action" to remove him from his position.

He claims that complaints made by some GOAL staff against him, including complaints of behaviour resulting in a culture of institutionalised bullying, are "false and concocted."

Ms Justice Mary Laffoy was told that there appeared to be a personality clash between GOAL Chairman Pat O'Mahony and Mr O'Shea.

The court heard Mr O'Shea had been told not to attend a board meeting of the agency last week where a vote to suspend him was defeated by six votes to five.

His Senior Counsel, Paul McGarry, told the court that another meeting of the board had been fixed for last evening.

It was his view that there was concerted action to remove him and he feared another effort to suspend him might be made at that meeting.

Mr O'Shea set up GOAL 35 years ago.

The judge granted an order restraining the taking of any steps at the meeting to deal with Mr O'Shea's position.

Lawyers for GOAL were not in court.

The matter will come before the High Court again on Friday when they will have the opportunity to respond to Mr O'Shea's arguments.

The court heard Mr O'Shea wanted some breathing space in circumstances where he feared the board meeting would repeat last week's effort to suspend his employment.

Mr O'Shea says complaints by some staff members were put to him last week.

His lawyers say a disciplinary inquiry, which is in place, was not properly established.

The court heard there was a letter of complaint by some managers of GOAL in relation to Mr O'Shea's general conduct and allegations were made of a culture of institutionalised bullying.

Mr O'Shea says no written particularised allegations were put to him and two particular complaints were false, untrue, not fresh and had been concocted by senior staff.

The court heard Mr O'Shea says an agenda is being pursued against him.

His counsel told the court he felt huge distress, stress and anxiety and this was all occurring with no regard to fair procedures.

Mr O'Shea was not in court.