Plagiarism claim against former mayor

FORMER Mayor of Clare, Flan Garvey has been accused of plagiarising sections of his thesis for a master’s degree at Tralee Institute of Technology, where he is currently chairman of the governing body.

The former Fianna Fáil three-term councillor received his master of arts degree in 2008 but it emerged this week that 26 staff have written to college registrar Dr Michael Hall alleging his dissertation, A study of the Saiocht of a parish in County Clare, contains large sections of text identical to earlier publications.

When contacted by The Clare Champion, Mr Garvey, a retired principal of St Flannan’s National School in Inagh, said, “On legal advice, I have no comment to make on those articles but will get back to you with comment in time, when advised. It may be of interest to note there are up to 500 staff members in IT Tralee”.

The college lecturers allege Mr Garvey’s dissertation, which had been supervised by a senior academic, “contains large sections of text which are identical to earlier published sources, either uncited or cited, in a manner that suggest that Mr Garvey is their author”.

They made reference to over 50 pages of Mr Garvey’s dissertation claiming that it consisted of “text which is identical” to the text of three books or papers published between 1942 and 1965.

Details of the plagiarism claim were conveyed in a letter, dated November 8, to the college registrar Dr Michael Hall, in which they asked that he refer their complaint for external investigation to the Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority Ireland (QQI).

They said that no staff, either academic or management, should be involved in the investigation.

Mr Garvey currently sits on an examinations and assessment appeals committee at the Tralee Institute, which deliberates on issues such as plagiarism by students.

However, it is understood that QQI has since referred the matter back to Tralee IT. In a statement, QQI acknowledged that allegations of plagiarism have been made against a graduate of an Institution of Technology.

“There are well established procedures in place in all Irish higher education institutions for investigating these matters, which are a matter for the statutory academic council of the higher education institution, in the first instance.

“As you will understand, it would not be appropriate for QQI to comment on any individual case involving a student or graduate of an Irish higher education institution,” a spokesperson commented.
Tralee IT has also declined to comment on the controversy.

Mr Garvey was also in the news in 2008 when it emerged he used, legitimately, €2,800 of his expenses from Clare County Council to pay for his master’s degree.