Chief executive tells court his dismissal was due to malice

An interim order preventing the Irish Council of People with Disabilities (ICPD) from appointing any person other than Mr David Lonergan to the position of chief executive was issued by the High Court yesterday.

In an affidavit, Mr Lonergan claimed the purported termination of his appointment as CEO of the ICPD was tainted by malice and/or bad faith "in that it was motivated by personal animus against me as a result of my seeking to clarify, and rectify if need be, the basis on which the ICPD's administrator was being remunerated."

On the application of Mr Patrick Keane SC, for Mr Lonergan, Mr Justice Geoghegan granted the interim injunction - returnable for Monday next - preventing the appointment of any other person to the CEO post. The judge also gave Mr Lonergan leave to seek an order quashing the decision of October 5th 1998 purporting to terminate Mr Lonergan's appointment as CEO.

The judge said the application to quash the order should be made in the normal way by plenary summons. It was not an appropriate matter for judicial review.

In an affidavit, Mr Lonergan, of Grosvenor Place, Rathmines, Dublin, said the national board of the ICPD ratified his appointment as CEO about June 1998. His contract was approved by the Department of Justice in September 1998 and no written objections to it from members of the board of the ICPD were received within the stipulated seven-day period. He believed and was advised the terms of his contract became binding and effective.

He said he discovered in June 1998 that the salary of the ICPD administrator, Ms Anne Kennedy, previously had been increased from £29,600 to £34,000 without any apparent authorisation and had further discovered that the administrator was also being paid £400 a month tax-free.

He said he asked the administrator about the matter and was told it had been approved by the former chairman of the ICPD and by the chairman of the ICPD' s finance committee. Mr Lonergan said he raised the matter with the former chairman, who had responded that he had not approved the increase.

He raised the matter with the Department and was advised to pay the full amount and ask in writing how the increase and tax-free payment came about. If no adequate answer was forthcoming, he was advised payment should be stopped. He also secured advice from the ICPD solicitors that the entire arrangement was "illegal" and should be stopped immediately.

Mr Lonergan said he made additional inquiries and consequently the administrator was informed he was trying to get rid of her. That was not the case, he was merely trying to sort out an issue about which he had received "alarming" advice from the council's solicitors, he said.

Mr Lonergan said he decided to stop the tax-free element of the administrator's remuneration about August 1998 and also wrote to her to say if no justification was forthcoming, he would have to stop the other portion of the overpayment in September.

At a meeting on September 7th, 1998, he was asked by the chairman of the finance committee of the ICPD to "simply pay the money and leave the administrator alone", otherwise a full board meeting would have to be called, Mr Lonergan said. No progress was made and a full board meeting was arranged.

At the full board meeting on September 26th, 1998, Mr Lonergan said he was told he was not being offered a contract and his functions were to be discharged by a management committee. That committee, which included the administrator and the finance committee chairman, later met Department officials. The officials had said a committee was not acceptable. They wished to discuss whether the ICPD had a chief executive with the appropriate powers.

On October 5th, Mr Lonergan said he attended a meeting of the management committee of the ICPD and was told to be out of his office by 5 p.m. As a result, the Minister had had to put in one of his officials to act as chief executive.

Since that date, he had received no remuneration and the locks on the doors of the ICPD's premises were changed.