High Court grants garnishee order for unpaid school debt but refuses sequestration of vehicles due to defendant's imprisonment.

THE HIGH COURT

[2025] IEHC 675

[2022/4507P]

BETWEEN

THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT OF WILSON’S HOSPITAL SCHOOL

PLAINTIFF

AND

ENOCH BURKE

DEFENDANT

Judgment (No. 2) of Mr. Justice Cregan delivered on the 28th day of November, 2025

Introduction

1. In my first judgment, delivered on 18th November, 2025, I considered the plaintiff’s application for an order for the committal of Mr. Burke for failure to comply with the order of the High Court (Owens J.) made on 17th July, 2023 and I made an order committing Mr. Burke to prison for such contempt of court. This judgment now considers the other applications by the school. These include:

(i) An application for a garnishee order and

(ii) An order for sequestration of certain motor vehicles.

The garnishee application

2. The school has sought a garnishee order that all monies due from the Department of Education and Youth to Mr. Burke should be paid to the school.

3. At present, although Mr. Burke has been dismissed for gross misconduct, he is still being paid, pending his appeal before the Disciplinary Appeals Panel (DAP). The High Court has made a garnishee order which has had the effect that Mr. Burke’s payments received from the Department of Education have been paid to the Courts Office to ensure the part payment of fines imposed by the court on Mr. Burke for contempt of court. The school however has also applied for a garnishee order on the grounds that Mr. Burke also owes a considerable debt to the school.

4. Mr. Justice Owens, after a plenary hearing, made an order on 17th July, 2023 (perfected on 23rd August, 2023) which stated that: “The plaintiff do recover as against the defendant damages in the sum of €15,000 in respect of trespass by the plaintiff on premises of Wilson’s Hospital School in the possession or the control of the plaintiff”.

5. It is clear therefore that the school has a judgment in the sum of €15,000 against Mr. Burke for trespassing on the school property. It is also clear that Mr. Burke has not paid a single euro of this judgment. In the circumstances, the plaintiff has a valid debt due to it by Mr. Burke, which has not been paid.

6. It is also clear that Mr. Burke has a source of income (i.e. that he is being paid a sum of money each month from the Department of Education). I am satisfied, on the facts of this case, that it is just and appropriate that the monies currently being paid by the Department of Education to the receiver (and then onwards to the Courts Office) should now be paid by the Department of Education to the receiver and then directly to Wilson’s Hospital School until the sum of €15,000 is paid. I will therefore make a conditional order of garnishee:

(i) that the Department of Education continue making the payments, in respect of Mr. Burke, to the receiver, as and from the date of this order, and

(ii) that the court appointed receiver should pay the monies received from the Department directly to Wilson’s Hospital School.

7. The Department of Education can make written submissions to this court within seven days, if it so wishes, as to why the conditional order of garnishee should not be made absolute. If no submissions are received, the order will be made absolute in seven days.

8. I want to emphasise that this garnishee order is being made because Mr. Burke owes a debt of €15,000 to the school on foot of the order of the High Court (Owens J.). It is a matter for the school as to what it does with this money. If the school wishes to use this money to defray the cost of the security guards which it had to hire to keep Mr. Burke off the school premises, that is a matter for the school.

The sequestration of motor vehicles

9. I am satisfied that the court has the power to sequestrate the motor vehicles which Mr. Burke used to commit his flagrant breaches of the court order. However, as Mr. Burke has been committed to prison, it is not necessary to sequestrate these vehicles at this time. The court will however consider this again at a later date should it prove necessary. Mr. Burke’s purging of his contempt.

10. I would like to make it crystal clear to Mr. Burke what he must do to purge his contempt and to be released from prison.

11. He must give an undertaking to the court that he will not enter on, or trespass on, the school’s property again without the school’s consent. That is all. (The issue of outstanding fines will however remain.)

12. He does not have to give any undertaking that he will follow the school principal’s direction to call a child “they” or “them”. He does not have to accept transgenderism. He does not have to stop protesting against transgenderism. He does not have to change his religious beliefs one iota.

13. The idea that Mr. Burke is being imprisoned because of his religious beliefs is nonsense. This court does not imprison people for their religious beliefs. Mr. Burke is being imprisoned because he is trespassing on other people’s property. No more. No less.

14. Any statements by Mr. Burke, or other members of his family, that he is being imprisoned because of his opposition to transgenderism are demonstrably false.

15. As I said in my first judgment, Mr. Burke has the keys to his own prison. He only has to give an undertaking that he will obey court orders – like every other citizen in the country.

Conclusion

16. I will therefore:

(i) Make a garnishee order directing that the monies to be paid from today’s date by the Department of Education to Mr. Burke, now be paid by the Department to the receiver and then from the receiver to the plaintiff;

(ii) I will not order the sequestration of the motor vehicles for the time being but I will adjourn this issue generally with liberty to re-enter;

(iii) I will adjourn the balance of the reliefs sought generally with liberty to re-enter.