Disciplinary hearings begin into allegations of competition fixing in Irish dancing

Independent external panels are examining complaints against over 40 individuals that they were allegedly involved in attempts to fix higher marks for students in dance competitions. File photo: RollingNews.ie

Disciplinary hearings to consider allegations of competition fixing in Irish dancing have begun.

Irish Dancing’s governing body An Coimisiun le Rinci Gaelacha (CLRG) has confirmed that the hearings are underway with retired High Court judge, Mr Justice Bernard Barton, presiding over the process. It is understood the first hearings took place last week.

Independent external panels are examining complaints against over 40 individuals that they were allegedly involved in attempts to fix higher marks for students in dance competitions. A former senior garda, retired county registrars and practising barristers are among those who agreed to sit on the disciplinary panels to consider the allegations.

CLRG said there will be about 40 hearings in total and said it will not be commenting on individual cases. It said a statement will be issued once all of the proceedings are complete.

Earlier this year, CLRG said it planned to schedule disciplinary hearings for people identified by an independent investigation team that examined claims of alleged wrongdoing at competitions.

The hearings were set down to go ahead after a recent High Court ruling in one case where an adjudicator had brought an application seeking to halt the disciplinary proceedings against her and an injunction lifting her suspension from adjudicating until her High Court action had been determined. She was one of a number of people suspended from adjudicating pending completion of an investigation.

In the woman’s case, an injunction was granted by a High Court judge halting the suspension of the Irish dancing adjudicator as part of an investigation into allegations of feis competition fixing. However, Ms Justice Eileen Roberts refused to stop the disciplinary process against the female feis adjudicator.

The woman had been suspended by CLRG following complaints about text messages between 12 named individuals, including the woman and another adjudicator. Complaints were made that the text messages involving the 12 individuals allegedly showed alleged breaches of the CLRG code of conduct which makes the receiving of any reward or showing any favour or disfavour a matter for disciplinary process.

The claims were denied and it was contended that the text exchange was just part of normal "submissions" which did not affect how competitors were marked.

Ms Justice Roberts said the application to stop the disciplinary process was premature at this point and she refused the application to stop it. She directed that the disciplinary hearing should progress as soon as possible.

The text messages were first sent in a complaint to CLRG’s ethics committee last summer and later posted online, leading CLRG to ask former Appeal Court judge Mr Justice Michael Peart to determine whether the individuals had a disciplinary case to answer. Last October, the retired judge found that there was sufficient evidence for the matter to be fully investigated and considered under CLRG’s disciplinary procedures.