Priest to challenge refusal to register him as a teacher

A schoolteacher priest, said to be penniless since his pay was cut off by the minister for education, has been granted leave to legally challenge the Teaching Council’s decision not to register him as a teacher.

Fr Tommy Conroy, who was cleared by his school board of allegations of having sexually abused a student, has already been granted leave by the High Court to challenge the minister’s decision to refuse to pay him.

Fr Conroy, of Clonamona, Dranford, Gorey, Co Wexford, had been put on administrative leave with pay pending a thorough school board inquiry. Despite his name having been cleared, the minister refused to pay him and the school refused to re-employ him on the basis he had allowed his teacher registration, albeit inadvertently, to lapse.