Secondary teacher, Enoch Burke has been given two weeks to make submissions to the High Court on how fines imposed on him for contempt of court are to be enforced.
Judge David Nolan said by his rough calculations, Mr Burke owes around €190,000 so far as a result of a €700 a day fine imposed on him by the court in January 2023.
Mr Burke was fined after continuing to attend Wilson's Hospital School in Westmeath, despite court injunctions directing him not to.
He has also spent more than 500 days in Mountjoy Prison in three stints. He was freed just before Christmas but the court heard he has returned to the school premises almost every day since it reopened after the holidays.
Mr Justice Nolan had asked representatives of the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Finance to attend at the court today to discuss how the fines imposed on Mr Burke for contempt could be enforced.
The judge said even though the court had the power to jail people and impose fines for contempt of court, there was no precise statutory regime for such fines to be recovered.
Mr Burke was not in court, but in a letter, he described the hearing as "illegal, unprecedented, and gravely disturbing." He said the court was seeking advice to strip him of his livelihood.
Lawyers for the Attorney General told the High Court there were mechanisms to force Mr Burke to pay the fines.
After concern expressed by the judge about the costs that would be accrued by the school if it was to take enforcement action itself, the court was told that the Attorney General may be willing to bring the enforcement proceedings.
Senior Counsel Brian Kennedy for the Attorney, said he acknowledged the public interest in the enforcement of fines by the courts.
Mr Burke has been in dispute with his former school since August 2022. He was suspended after he interrupted a religious service at the school in June that year to demand that the principal withdrew what he called her "demand" to use they/them pronouns in relation to a student.
In January 2023, the High Court imposed a daily fine of €700 on him for each day that he remained in contempt of court orders directing him to stay away from the school. The court heard today that the daily fine ran until the court imposed a permanent injunction on him in July that year.
Mr Burke is continuing to receive his full salary from the Department of Education as his appeal against his dismissal from the school has not yet been heard.
Senior Counsel, Alex White told the judge Mr Burke was continuing to cause disruption by attending on the school lands. He said the school had no role in paying his salary.
Mr Kennedy said orders seeking enforcement of orders in contempt cases are usually applied for by the party in whose favour the order is made. But he said there were circumstances in which such orders may be made after an application by the Attorney General or by the court’s own motion.
Mr Kennedy said one way of enforcing the fine would be an order sequestering Mr Burke’s assets. He said a sequestration order was essentially an order freezing assets and there appeared to be no reason in principle why monies could not be withheld in order to pay fines.
He also told the court that another way to enforce the fines was to seek a type of order called a garnishee order over Mr Burke’s salary or earnings. Such orders have been made in England and Wales, he said and there did not appear to be any reason in principle why they could not be made in Ireland.
Mr Justice Nolan said the school had already incurred significant costs and would incur more if the onus was on it to take the enforcement action. Furthermore, he said any fines recovered would not be for the benefit of the school but would be for the state.
Mr Kennedy said the Attorney General was of the view that he did have a standing, in the public interest to take such proceedings.
Mr White said the case had now been going on for "multiple years". He said all the school wanted to do was to be a school and it had not made an application to have Mr Burke brought to court for contempt because it wanted to see if this process could arrive at a solution. He said costs orders in relation to the multiple court hearings so far were being drawn up.
Judge Nolan said he was disappointed that Mr Burke was not in court and it was imperative that he was given the opportunity to make submissions on the issue. He said he would give him, and the school, 14 days to make such submissions. He said he would give a ruling on the matter at some point after that.
Earlier, the judge gave a ruling on an issue raised by Mr Burke before Christmas. Mr Burke and his family had said a direction by the judge that if anyone interrupted the hearing they would be removed from the courtroom and prohibited from future hearings. The judge said Mr Burke then maintained a "constant barrage of insults" any time he tried to speak and his family stated outside court that the judge had acted unlawfully.
Judge Nolan said the whole purpose of removing a disruptive person from the court was to ensure the rule of law was carried out in public in a clear and understandable way. He referred to a previous judgment of the Supreme Court. And he said he had acted lawfully and correctly.
