Chair of institute has plagiarism ruling overturned

An external investigation has found that Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT) chairman Flan Garvey committed unintentional plagiarism in a 2008 master’s thesis but this has been overturned on a technical appeal.

The three academics appointed in December to probe a complaint by 26 ITT academics found plagiarism in two chapters of the thesis about his Co Clare parish.

Their report, completed in February and now seen by the Irish Examiner, also concluded he did not appropriately reference and acknowledge all primary and secondary research. It said his degree was attained in a manner that was unjustified, but not fraudulent.