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The man appeared in court this week via video link from prison where he is on remand.

€5k sexual discrimination award to Clare father overturned

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The award had been made after the man’s daughter had been enrolled in a secondary school without him being consulted, writes Gordon Deegan

A JUDGE has overturned a state watchdog ruling that a Clare father was discriminated against because he was a man in a row over his daughter’s school enrolment.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Brian O’Callaghan stated that he could find no evidence that the father was discriminated against by the Clare secondary school’s Board of Management concerning his daughter’s enrolment, because he was a man.

The ruling by Judge O’Callaghan also overturns the €3,500 award made to the man two years ago at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) concerning his Equal Status discrimination claim.

The case came before the Circuit Court following the school board of management appealing the WRC ruling from 2019.

Counsel for the school board of management told Judge O’Callaghan that the judgement “was a very important judgement not just for parties involved but for schools generally”.

The father took the gender discrimination case under the Equal Status Act against the school board of management after the school enrolled the girl for the 2017/18 school year without his consent.

In the case, the parents are estranged and share joint legal guardianship of their daughter.

Judge O’Callaghan stated that the court’s regret over the issue is heightened where both parents went through the same process when deciding on the enrolment for the same daughter for her primary school.

An application was made then to a court to resolve the issue as the parents could not resolve it themselves.

Judge O’Callaghan stated that having had that experience, the court regrets the similar attitude taken by the parents where they couldn’t resolve the outstanding issues in 2017.
Judge O’Callaghan made no order for costs in the case.

In the case in April 2017, the father became aware that his former partner applied to have their daughter enrolled in the school in January 2017.

The father contacted the school on April 10 2017 and informed it that he didn’t consent to the enrolment and provided the school with a copy of a court order confirming that he was a legal guardian of the girl.

The father wrote to the school principal on August 14 2017 and to the chair of the board of management on August 30 2017 concerning his objections to the enrolment.

The girl was now attending the school and the school principal wrote to the father on August 30 2017 advising him that both himself and the girl’s mother should sort this matter out between themselves in the interest of their daughter.

The father stated that the school enrolled his daughter according to the wishes of his mother and did not take his position as a male or father into consideration.

At the time, the chairperson stated that it could not intervene in any family law dispute between legal guardians regarding attendance or enrolment of the school.

The chairperson advised that the matter may be resolved either by agreement between the legal guardians or by way of a court order.

In 2017, the chairperson told the father that the school had no wish or interest in taking sides in any dispute between parents and that the school’s policy was to treat all parents equally.

The school board of management stated that it did not treat the father less favourably than a person of a different gender.

The board of management stated that it acted in accordance with its enrolment policy and applicable duty on schools to enrol children who apply to their school.

The school told the WRC stated to act otherwise, as is suggested by the father, would be a postponement of his daughter’s right to an education and would be contrary to public policy interest.

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