IT staff ‘shocked’ at bid to find leak of plagiarism case

Staff at Institute of Technology Tralee are said to be in shock that anyone who leaked details of a plagiarism complaint against the college chairperson might face disciplinary action.

The probe into the case brought to college authorities’ attention last November has not yet been finalised, but former Fianna Fáil Clare County Council member, Flan Garvey, said in December he would be defending his position.

It is claimed by 26 IT Tralee academics that three chapters of his 2008 dissertation for a Masters in Arts degree at the college, about the history of his local parish, were “verbatim copies of uncited or misleadingly cited works”. The college appointed a three-member panel of external academics to investigate the claims against the governing body chair in January.