The High Court has ruled that the heads of two Vocational Educational Committees can retain a €12,500 a year allowance for transport liaison duties despite the fact that they ceased doing the duties two years ago.
Dr Katie Sweeney of Mayo VEC and former GAA president Joe McDonagh of Galway VEC had challenged the decision of the Minister for Education to abolish the allowance last June once they were no longer responsible for overseeing transport arrangements.
However Dr Sweeney and Mr McDonagh had argued that the allowance was part of their basic pay and that its removal would affect their pension entitlements.
Mr Justice Gerard Hogan ruled that S 15 (6 ) of the Vocational and Education (Amendment ) Act 2001 meant that the payment of allowances was to be determined by the VECs themselves.
It also meant that the Minister's role was simply to consent to such payment.
However, he said that the Minister was given no power to terminate such payments in the manner in which he purported to do so.
Accordingly, he said the revocation of such payments in June 2012 by the Minister must be judged to be unlawful.
The judge stressed that his judgment only addresses the situation that applies prior to the commencement of new legislation shortly to enable the amalgamation of a number of VECs.
As yet it is unclear what implications the ruling could have for the Government's plans to cut the annual bill of €1.5bn for allowances and premium payments in the public sector.
