Making State liable would be 'illogical', court told

THE MINISTER for Education has denied liability for sexual assaults by a school principal on a national school pupil in 1973, and for the actions of other teachers, on grounds that national schools are not State schools but are controlled and run on a daily basis by church appointees.

In submissions to the Supreme Court, the State argues that suggestions by Louise O’Keeffe that the Minister, as a matter of public policy, should be vicariously liable, fails to acknowledge the limits of the department’s influence in schools and the reality of the situation in 1973 when there was “no real appreciation” of the gravity of such abuse or of any effective means to prevent it.

Even after the enactment of the 1998 Education Act, there are “significant limits to departmental control of education”, and the fact the State funds salaries for teachers, pays their pensions and has functions relating to the inspections of schools, did not alter that reality, it says.

The reality of the situation at Dunderrow national school in 1973, when Ms O’Keeffe was sexually abused by the principal, was that the day-to-day operation and management of the school rested with its manager, a cleric, who in turn was appointed by the Bishop of Cork and Ross, as that diocese owned the school, the State submits. However, no proceedings were taken against the bishop.

Any principle of law under which the Minister would be held vicariously liable for the actions of teachers without the Minister having control over those teachers would be “illogical and unworkable”, the State submits. “To give the Minister such control . . . would involve rewriting the Education Act, 1998.”