Offer to resolve all issues with DCU at NO cost to the taxpayer

 Offer to resolve all issues with DCU at NO cost to the taxpayer

(I sent this to the Taoiseach and the relevant 3 ministers of the government on May 4 2014 as part of an ongoing correspondence with all of them)

It is in everyone's interest – not least Minister Quinn's – that the whole imbroglio involving DCU and me be resolved expeditiously. It is also clear that neither DCU nor the dept of education has any  intention of ever allowing the case go back to court, 12 years after it started. Of course, I was denied the right to go to the High court as well.

I am therefore proposing a way out that costs the state nothing. It has been done without legal consultation; I am of course an innocent abroad in this field. I insist only that my “personal effects” as DCU called them, including working versions of my SONAS and BLOOM systems, be returned to me.  I am ccing this to my lawyer, Niall Clerkin, who will probably be appalled by my rash behaviour.

Nevertheless, as long as DCU will publish certain true statements and leave them on their homepage for 1 year, I will waive even the derisory 45k awarded by the EAT.

The statements are;

1.There is no legal contract between Dr O Nuallain and DCU;  Dr O Nuallain signed a contract only with the NIHE Dublin in 1987. Consequently, his settlement with us has no bearing on the academic tenure issue in Ireland;
2.He has since worked longer at Stanford, Berkeley and the NRC Canada than he ever did at NIHE;
3.The accreditation of DCU as a university  in 1989 came about after a report from a visiting group chaired by Mr Michael Gleeson. By 1987, it was known that Gleeson had accepted a job at the institution to become known as DCU, which he duly took in 1989. The Oireachtas only considered his report in 1989;
4.In 1995, DCU issued a “comprehensive agreement “ with SIPTU including  a set of new contracts. These new contracts excised academic freedom, the right to work at home, and tenure from academics' contracts. However, the signatures on this “comprehensive agreement “  were copied from the earlier one in 1985 and the document is a fraud. In fact, one of the “signers”, Pat Cullen of HR at DCU, had by 1995  already been in Australia for 4 years. Moreover, far from being a “comprehensive agreement “ , SIPTU were never even informed, let alone consulted
5.In 2001, DCU passed an illegal disciplinary procedure again with no SIPTU consultation, despite being required to do so by the 1997 act
6.This illegal disciplinary procedure was kept on our books for 10 years, and used on citizens several times;
7.It has since been replaced by one with the same flaw that  Justice Clarke pointed out in the High court that  will ensure more lucrative pay days for Arthur Cox
8.We stopped giving our staff statements of their research accounts in the late 1990's but their complaints to the Gardai have gone without being acted on, despite Dail questions
9.We have also not allowed grievance procedures to proceed to completion, despite their being specified on the contracts

I respectfully submit that the DCU experiment has failed, and the state may learn from this as it attempts to enthrone DIT as the Northside university. Of course, I feel free to publish all this on my website, and make it known to the public in court as it is all true. I will allow Minister Quinn to consider in particular the status of the thousands of contracts issued at DCU since 1995

Is mise, le meas
Dr O Nuallain