The Marino affair is set to escalate after a report found no evidence of bullying, writes Seán Flynn, Education Editor.
The controversial Farrell Grant Sparks report into events at Marino Institute of Education could hardly be more robust in its defence of the authorities.
The crisis at the Christian Brother-run college is pinned on some staff making "misguided allegations" to support "misguided grievances". It found no evidence of bullying.
Publication of the report last night represented a U-turn by the college authorities.
Last week, they said the report could not be published for legal and commercial reasons.
However, the resignation of two members of staff in response to a published summary of the report, and the intervention of Minister for Education Mary Hanafin, made publication inevitable.
Ms Hanafin signalled that the report should be made public. She also observed that the problems at Marino had certainly not been resolved.
Last week college chaplain Fr Liam McGroarty and Éamonn Ó Murchú, a widely respected lecturer in special education, resigned their posts in protest at what they said was a "whitewash" by the college authorities.
The Christian Brothers insist the report is an independent one. But critics say the failure of the report team to interview Caoimhe Máirtín undermines its entire credibility.
Ms Máirtín is the former head of Coláiste Mhúire, the teacher training college which is a part of the Marino institute.
She received a €500,000 settlement in her bullying case against the Christian Brothers last year.
She also resigned her post as president of Coláiste Mhuire.
The Farrell Grant Sparks report suggests that the problems at Marino can be traced to a demand for independence by Coláiste Mhúire.
Instead of accepting the Christian Brother-run structures, it accuses some of running an independence campaign in which Coláiste Mhúire would operate entirely separately as a free-standing teacher training college. This, it said, would undermine the 100-year tradition of the Marino Institute of Education.
In a key phrase it says Coláiste Mhúire is not a legal entity, it does not have any legal standing and it does not, in any sense, have an existence separate from the institute.
The report finds that "allegations of bullying and harassment mostly arose from situations in which staff at Coláiste Mhúire were being directed to comply with proper MIE policies and procedures".
Against this background, it says allegations of bullying and harassment represent a unique interpretation of events which has no basis in fact.
Ms Máirtín is not named in the report - even though it was her resignation that triggered the inquiry.
For reasons which are not explained, she was not interviewed by the inquiry team.
The decision to settle her High Court action is also left unexplained.
In a controversial passage the inquiry team state: "In our view none of the . . . cases of alleged bullying and harassment brought to our attention during the review would stand up to independent adjudication."
The reports lists four main allegations made against college authorities.
These were;
Unfair treatment;
Undermining of Coláiste Mhúire;
Exclusion of some academic staff from decision making;
Intimidation of some staff.
In all four cases, it clears the college authorities of these allegations.