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Jon Secada

Just Another Day

Teaching Council Rejects Enoch Burke's Bid To Remove Chair And Inquiry Panel

Friday, 19 June 2026 12:29

Mr Burke requested that the panel chair, Andy Pike, step aside.

An inquiry panel of the Teaching Council has rejected claims by jailed schoolteacher Enoch Burke that it and its chairperson lack the independence and impartiality required to hear allegations of professional misconduct against him.

Mr Burke had applied to have both the three-person fitness-to-teach panel and its chairperson step aside from the inquiry.

The Teaching Council’s fitness-to-teach panel has rejected Enoch Burke’s claims that he cannot receive an impartial hearing.

The allegations against the jailed schoolteacher stem from complaints relating to his repeated attendance at Wilson’s Hospital School in County Westmeath, despite court orders directing him not to do so.

Mr Burke had sought the recusal of the panel’s chairperson, Andy Pike, on grounds of alleged objective bias.

He also argued that the panel as a whole had failed to uphold its obligation to act independently.

In a ruling delivered this morning, the panel found that both it and its chairperson are independent and impartial and can continue to oversee the inquiry.

Joining today’s hearing remotely from Castlerea Prison, Mr Burke said he considered it “a grave and monumental error that a man who champions the ‘they’ pronoun would be allowed to chair a panel inquiry into me.”

Mr Burke has now been given time to consider the ruling before the inquiry resumes.

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