Irish universities see significant increase in the amount spent on actions involving staff

Ronan McGreevy, Irish Times

University College Cork (UCC) has spent almost €1.5 million in the last five years on legal cases involving staff, new figures reveal. 

The university spent €619,400 on court actions in 2014/2015, the last academic year for which figures are available. 

One of the cases is a High Court action by Dr Joan Buckley, a senior UCC lecturer in marketing, who sued the university after not being shortlisted for a professorial position. The action is ongoing. 

UCC also spent €511,600 in the academic year 2010/2011, €170,600 in 2011/2012, €95,800 in 2012/2013 and €91,500 in 2013/2014 on legal costs. 

UCC’s outlay of €1,488,900 accounts for almost half of the €3.3 million spent by Ireland’s universities on legal actions involving staff. 

The next-biggest legal bill was from Maynooth University, which has spent €567,658 in the last five years, followed by UCD (€453,755), University of Limerick (€267,408), NUI Galway (€266,814), Dublin City University(€158,703) and Trinity College Dublin (€126,802). 

The figures were revealed by Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton in response to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD Jim Daly. 

Spike 

Mr Daly noted a spike in legal costs in the last academic year for which figures are available. 

UCD spent €236,859 on legal fees in 2014/2015, almost three times what it spent in 2013/2014. 

NUI Galway (€121,515), University of Limerick (€99,372) and DCU (€62,752) all had legal fees in 2014/2015 that were more than twice what they had spent on legal costs in previous years.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Irish Times Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 20:54