A date was set in the High Court yesterday for the hearing of an action by the protocol officer to President Mary McAleese aimed at securing an injunction to stop "bogus" disciplinary proceedings against her.
The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan said the case will be heard on April 6th next.
Earlier, counsel for the State, Mark Connaughton SC, told the court there was concern the matter be dealt with as soon as possible as it involved the office of the President and was "very disruptive". The court heard the application would take a day and a half and there were already 16 affidavits sworn in the case.
Bridget Conway, a higher executive officer in the Civil Service, Oakleigh, Clane Road, Celbridge, Co Kildare, has alleged that, because of resentment about her close working relationship with the President, "bogus" disciplinary proceedings were "contrived" against her by senior personnel in the office of the President's Secretary with a view to removing her from her post.
Roddy Horan SC, for Ms Conway, said there were three motions before the court including an application by Ms Conway to restrain a disciplinary process as well as two procedural motions.
The two motions included an application by the defendants to strike out Department of Defence personnel officer Brian Spain as a party to the proceedings and a motion by Ms Conway to add as parties Loughlin Quinn, personnel officer in the Office of the Secretary to the President and Brian McCarthy, secretary general in the same office.