Philip Nolan v Science Foundation Ireland: The dispute that has rocked Ireland’s science community

A series of responding affidavits from his employer detailed forensically the circumstances of growing turmoil within the State agency, which it claims began weeks after his appointment in January 2022.

Independent investigator Tom Mallon SC found he had not breached corporate governance or engaged in bullying but had displayed “inappropriate behaviour” towards senior managers concerned, which was at the “upper level” in respect of two of them. A protected disclosures group, made up of three board members, agreed with the findings – as did the full board.

In a 33-page response to Nolan’s allegations, Clinch outlines how he believed SFI became increasingly unable to perform its statutory functions; a problem compounded by senior staff being out on sick leave – due to stress in some cases – together with cancelled meetings and an exceptional number of board meetings due to the unfolding crisis, which required putting in place an independent observer to sit in on executive committee meetings.

He outlined 31 examples of dysfunction under Nolan’s leadership where “the situation was dire prior to the completion of the investigation but became substantially worse”. Disputes between Nolan and other executive committee members resulted in delays in progressing multimillion-euro programmes. “The board was not uncomfortable with the plaintiff’s past performance on Nphet but it needed his full attention on job for which he was paid over €200,000 per annum,” SFI chair said.

“In light of this it would be in the best interest of the new agency that any ongoing process would be resolved in a timely manner,” he added.

Philip-Nolan Patrick-Odonovan Simon-Harris Department-Of-Further-And-Higher-Education-Researc Analysis

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