Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation

Under the FOI Act, I wish to request access to record(s) that describe or confirm what the outcome of a successful external appeal means for Civil Servants who have been accused of wrongdoing and who have engaged with the Civil Service Disciplinary Code. Record(s) to which I am requesting access might include, for example, (a) correspondence with staff representatives during negotiations when the Code was being drafted and/or introduced or (b) training material provided to managers in the Civil Service. I am open to receiving a copy of any single available record that confirms the position please. Under the Civil Service Disciplinary Code (para 4.8), the External Appeals Officer is required to make a recommendation to management “in like form to one of the four options specified at section 4.6”, i.e., s/he has to choose from one of these four options: • Appeal unsuccessful – uphold the disciplinary action • Appeal successful – determine that no disciplinary action shall be taken • Appeal partially successful – take another, more suitable, disciplinary action, except that the recommendation shall not include reassignment of the civil servant to another location or other duties • Appeal identifies the need for the case to be reconsidered by the relevant manager to remedy a specified deficiency in the disciplinary proceedings. I am referring to circumstances where the External Appeals Officer makes a recommendation for bullet 2 (appeal successful - determine that no disciplinary action shall be taken) which is then accepted by management thereby concluding the disciplinary process. I'm trying to establish precisely what this means for a Civil Servant who had been accused of wrongdoing and that wrongdoing caused the disciplinary process to commence. Does it mean that there is no finding of wrongdoing or misconduct on the Civil Servant's record, consequent to which no disciplinary action shall be taken? Has the Civil Servant essentially been found innocent of the charges against him/her? Does this conclusion mean that any earlier findings of misconduct at earlier stages of the process are overturned? Has the employee cleared his/her name? Can it ever be the case that a Civil Service employee who has undergone the rigours of a disciplinary process up to and including the final stage and achieve a successful external appeal, will have a finding of misconduct on his/her record?