“The Supreme Court has upheld a challenge by Prof Connell Fanning, head of the economics department of University College Cork (UCC), to the conduct by the college authorities of an investigation into allegations he grabbed a female member of the college staff by the throat during an incident in the college car park. The three-judge court yesterday unanimously rejected UCC’s appeal against a High Court decision that the disciplinary procedures invoked by it towards Prof Fanning were beyond its powers. Where a proposed disciplinary action interferes with rights of tenure or conditions of service, Prof Fanning and anyone else appointed prior to the 1997 Universities Act may only be dealt with under pre-1997 statutes, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said …” (more)
[Mary Carolan, Irish Times, 29 October]