County Galway VEC's Joe McDonagh wins court battle over pay
County Galway VEC chief Joe McDonagh has won a court battle over pay.
The High Court has ruled that the heads of two Vocational Educational Committees can retain a €12,500 a year allowance for transport liaison duties despite the fact the duties stopped two years ago.
Joe McDonagh and Dr Katie Sweeney of Mayo VEC had challenged the decision of the Minister for Education to end the allowance last June once they were no longer responsible for overseeing transport arrangements.
However, Mr McDonagh and Dr Sweeney had argued that the allowance formed part of their basic pay and its removal would affect their pensions.
Mr Justice Gerard Hogan ruled the minister was given no power to terminate such payments in the manner in which he purported to do so.
Accordingly, he said the revocation of such payments last year by the minister must be judged to be unlawful.