Details from probe into the hiring of ‘dishonest’ solicitor to remain secret

● Department of Social Protection is allowed to withhold private information about Orla Ellis

The Department of Social Protection has won the right to keep secret the details of an investigation it carried out into its hiring of a “dishonest” solicitor when she was suspended by the Law Society for bookkeeping fraud.

On April 30 last year, the Sunday Independent revealed that the Department of Social Protection had hired Orla Ellis, the daughter of former Fianna Fáil TD John Ellis, after she had been suspended by the High Court from her Leitrimbased legal practice.

Ellis worked as a temporary clerical officer for the department. Her employment ended days after the story was published when there was a public outcry about her being hired.

People in Leitrim were dumbfounded that the department employed Ellis in 2023, despite the Sunday Independent reporting in January last year that she had been suspended as a solicitor after a Law Society investigation had found a €566,000 deficit in her client accounts.

A number of financial bequests left to charities by her clients had not been paid over by Ellis. The former solicitor has since been the subject of judgments against her by Revenue totalling €91,000.

Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy asked Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys in a parliamentary question last May to explain how Ellis had been hired by her department.

The minister said she had “no function in the matter” and staff recruitment was a “day-to-day matter” for departments and the Public Appointments Service (PAS).

The Sunday Independent sought records under Freedom of Information (FoI) relating to investigations carried out by the department into Ellis’s hiring, but the department declined to release any, saying they contained personal and sensitive information.

In a decision from the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) which rules on FoI appeals, it upheld the department’s decision.

It ordered the release of just two records, which show that on May 2, Dermot Sheridan, a principal officer in the department, sought approval from PAS for a “contract letter” he intended to issue to Ellis.

The email was sent days after its was publicly revealed that Ellis was working for the department, which administers social welfare payments.

Eimear Ó Connor, head of recruitment operations in the PAS, responded to confirm to Sheridan that PAS would “stand over” highlighted text contained in the letter that was to be sent to Ellis.

All other records related to the department’s investigation into its hiring of Ellis were withheld on privacy grounds.

OIC investigator Jim Stokes, who ruled on the FoI case, said the records included correspondence from the department offering a temporary contract of employment, a candidate self-declaration form and correspondence relating to pre-employment checks.

Records also included correspondence and notes of investigations and inquiries and correspondence to the individual, outlining the findings and outcome of these investigations.

The department maintained the records would usually be considered “very personal” and related to matters before the employee took up her role in the department.

It said that while elements of an individual’s past may be in the public domain, this did not stop it being personal information.

Stokes ruled that the self-declaration form included medical and character information he believed was provided on the understanding that it would be treated by the department as confidential.

He said the personal information was “beyond” what was contained in newspaper articles.

He said other records “are largely concerned with investigations and inquiries carried out by the department in relation to pre-employment matters such as checks, vetting and self-declaration forms”.

As the records related to the employee’s history before joining the department, he said they were not related to functions in the department and so were not subject to a provision that would allow them to be released under FoI.

Stokes said there was a public interest in openness and transparency in relation to how FoI bodies carry out functions and how they vet new staff. This was of “particular importance where staff members are carrying out functions such as administering social welfare payments”.

However, he said the release of the requested records “would result in a significant intrusion into the privacy rights of the individual”.

Ellis, who also ran a pub in Fenagh, Co Leitrim, until March last year, was struck off the roll of solicitors last December.

The Law Society’s Compensation Fund has paid her former clients €666,0000, with more than €560,000 recovered from her firm.

Judge David Barniville, President of the High Court, ordered that more than €128,000 must be paid by Ellis to the Law Society as restitution.

The orders came after a lawyer for the Law Society said Ellis would be “a continuing risk to the public” if she were allowed to continue to practise.

“The conduct involved fraud and dishonesty on the part of Ms Ellis and behaviour likely to bring the profession into disrepute,” said barrister Elaine Finneran, for the society.

Tribunal chair Freda McKittrick said Ellis’s conduct “involved dishonesty” and was “repeated, deliberate and concealed.”