A fitness-to-practise teaching panel has adjourned to consider sanctions regarding a former principal convicted of stealing more than €100,000 from the school he was working in.
The 381 instances of theft occurred in a primary school between 2017 and 2019. The man was tried in court, convicted and sentenced to six years, with the final four-and-a-half years suspended.
The thefts stemmed from the use of a credit card and cheques on which the man forged the signature of the chairperson of the board of management.
The panel informed the inquiry on Thursday it had found the allegation that the teacher was convicted in the State of one or more offences, triable on indictment had been proven. The teacher had previously admitted to this allegation.
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Chair Mary Magner said the panel further found that this affected the teacher’s fitness to teach and that they had reconvened to decide what sanction to impose on him.
The man is now teaching in a primary school in the east region, where he began working last December and was later offered a permanent position.
Cathy Maguire SC, for the teacher, asked the panel to impose a sanction of no more than censure with an undertaking he would have no access to funds in his employment.
She said this would also satisfy the requirements of the Teaching Council as a regulatory body to provide reasonable accommodation to a teacher with a disability to have access to its profession.
In evidence at a hearing in May, Prof Colin O’Gara, a consultant psychiatrist at St John of God Hospital, said the teacher’s addiction constituted a disability under Employment Equality legislation.
Prof O’Gara told the inquiry he met the teacher in June 2023 for an initial assessment and he presented with a long history of severe addiction.
A previous order that any identifying features, including the nature of the man’s addiction, be anonymised, also applied to Thursday’s hearing.
Ms Maguire said the teacher did not present a risk in that he should be suspended from his profession or erased from the register.
She said such steps would not promote public confidence in the profession, but would amount to over-regulation and would not be proportionate.
The inquiry heard in June how as part of the terms of the suspension of the last four-and-a-half years of his custodial sentence , the teacher was to pay €20,000 to the school on the first three anniversaries of his release from prison.
However, the inquiry heard that on the first anniversary he only paid €10,000. A sum of €5,000 was paid 13 months later.
The inquiry also heard in June how the board of management and the teacher had agreed he would repay €500 fortnightly, beginning in July, to clear the money owed. .
Ms Maguire also said that if the teacher was suspended then this may have an impact on his current employment.
During a break in proceedings on Thursday, an agreement was reached between both sides regarding conditions which could be attached to the teacher’s registration.
These included that he would not take up a post with access to finances, a condition he would inform any employer of, and that he would attend for a medical report from a consultant or a GP to demonstrate his adherence to medical advice for recovery for a period of one year.
Another condition, namely that he would comply with the repayment agreement and to furnish evidence of that, was conditional on the teacher only being censured.
However, Eoghan O’Sullivan, for the director of the Teaching Council, said the director was seeking the teacher’s suspension from the register for a period not greater than two years.
Mr O’Sullivan said the teacher’s behaviour amounted to extremely serious offending while he was principal of a primary school, where he acted dishonestly and which amounted to a breach of trust by a principal who was entrusted by the staff, pupils and parents to have access to school funds.
It is understood the inquiry will reconvene online at a future date.
