Presidential hug led to ‘bogus’ action, says aide

AN Áras an Uachtaráin civil servant has claimed “bogus” disciplinary proceedings were instituted after some colleagues resented her being embraced by President Mary McAleese.

The High Court yesterday fixed a date for an injunction application to halt disciplinary proceedings being taken against the President’s protocol officer, Bridget Conway.

In an affidavit, Ms Conway claimed a working relationship with one senior official in the Áras began to deteriorate after she was hugged by the President returning from the funerals of victims of the Omagh bombing in August 1998.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan said the case will be heard on April 6 next. Counsel for the State, Mark Connaughton SC told the High Court there was concern the matter be dealt quickly as it involved the office of the President and was very disruptive.

The court heard the application would take a day-and-a-half. Sixteen affidavits have already been sworn in the case.

Ms Conway, a higher executive officer in the civil service, with an address at Oakleigh, Clane Road, Celbridge, Co Kildare, alleged that because of resentment about her close working relationship with the President, bogus disciplinary proceedings were “contrived” against her by senior personnel in the office of the President’s Secretary with a view to removing her from her post.

The case was mentioned twice in the High Court yesterday.

Ms Conway’s counsel Roddy Horan SC yesterday told the court there were three motions before the court, including an application by Ms Conway to restrain a disciplinary process as well as two procedural motions. These motions, he said, include an application by the defendants to strike out Department of Defence personnel officer Brian Spain from the proceedings and a motion by Ms Conway to add Mr Loughlin Quinn, personnel officer in the Office of the Secretary to the President and Brian McCarthy, secretary general in the same office.

Ms Conway, it was noted, manages the President’s diary and drafts speaking notes for the President.

The embrace was to thank Ms Conway for her support and was witnessed by a senior official who challenged Ms Conway and asked her to explain what he termed “all this hugging stuff”, Ms Conway stated in legal documents.

She claims that her close relationship with the President was resented in particular by Loughlin Quinn, personnel officer in the Office of the Secretary to the President and Brian McCarthy, secretary general in the same office. She claims this alleged “personal animus” by the two men was the driving force behind an investigation into “baseless allegations” into working practices in the office.

Ms Conway claims a baseless allegation of bullying was made against her in early 2004 by a female colleague at the Áras and she was ultimately exonerated in July 2005.

Shortly after the bullying allegation was made, she claims she was informed in a letter from Mr Quinn that a number of matters had been brought to the attention of management which would have to be investigated.

She rejected all those allegations as contrived and believed the entire process flouted the civil service disciplinary code.

The proceedings have been brought against An Taoiseach, the State, the Attorney General and Brian Spain, personnel officer in the Department of Defence who has been nominated to conduct a disciplinary hearing concerning Ms Conway.

Ms Conway has been the President’s protocol officer since 1997 and was promoted to higher executive officer in 2000. She began work in the Áras in 1994.