FÁS HAS been blocked in the High Court through a temporary injunction from taking any further steps to dismiss its former director of corporate affairs, Greg Craig, and from making any disparaging comments to the media about him.
Speaking after the hearing, a spokesman for Fás said that, while it had not yet been served with papers in the case, “we are confident that we can successfully defend our position in court”.
Oisín Quinn, SC, for Mr Craig, told the court his client, of Greenlea Grove, Terenure, Dublin, had been made a scapegoat by Fás and he was continually being offered up to the media.
Mr Quinn told Mr Justice Paul Gilligan his client had been told early last week he was being dismissed after an internal inquiry.
Mr Craig, a former director of corporate affairs at Fás, claims the State agency is seeking to avoid a commitment made previously to apologise to him and pay him compensation for damage caused to him.
He told Mr Justice Gilligan in an affidavit he had locked himself in his office on September 5th last to study an internal report by Ignatius Lynam when Fás assistant director Conor Dunne had pushed in the door and told him he was firing him with immediate effect.
He said Mr Dunne went on to say he had spent the previous day, September 4th, reading the Lynam report, and as a result he had been unable to watch the All-Ireland hurling final on television.
Mr Dunne had said he had studied the report and that it had established serious breaches of procedure, and that he was going to fire Mr Craig and ordered him to leave the premises and hand in his keys.
Mr Craig told the court he had been so shocked by what had happened that he had taken a diabetic “hypo attack”.
Mr Dunne had told him: “I have got advice and I can dismiss you immediately, so I am. You are not to get the opportunity to apply the grievance procedure.”
He had told Mr Dunne he wanted to gather his files and papers, including the report, but Mr Dunne had insisted he leave immediately and only take his personal belongings. He had threatened that if necessary he would get gardaí to remove him from the premises.
Mr Quinn told the court Mr Craig had later been handed a letter by Mr Dunne’s secretary telling him his e-mail account and phone had been cut off and he was to leave the building or head office security staff would be called to escort him from the premises.
He said Mr Craig believed he would have an opportunity to challenge the findings of the report.
Mr Quinn said as part of the winding down process of Fás Mr Craig was to be transferred to the Department of Social Protection in 2012 but he would be unable to do that if he was not an employee of Fás.
Mr Justice Gilligan granted Mr Craig an injunction restraining Fás from taking any steps to further implement the purported dismissal, and a further injunction restraining Fás from making or communicating or publishing any adverse or disparaging statements concerning him.
Mr Craig had claimed that on a number of occasions specific matters regarding him had been leaked by Fás to the media.