A COUNCILLOR has pleaded not guilty at Dublin District Court to assaulting Minister for Health Mary Harney who was splattered with red paint at a hospital last November.
Ms Harney, who now may have to give evidence in the trial, had paint thrown at her during a sod-turning ceremony for a new primary care and mental health unit at Cherry Orchard Hospital in west Dublin, on November 1st last.
Dublin city councillor Louise Minihan (29), Knock Riada, Chapelizod, Dublin, a member of the socialist republican Éirígí party, had been charged in November and appeared in court last month in relation to the incident. She is accused of assaulting the Minister for Health and criminal damage to her clothing.
At her first court appearance, on December 15th last, the defence said copies of the prosecution statements had already been received and the councillor was then remanded to appear again yesterday to enter a plea to the charge.
She arrived at the court building yesterday morning with a group of supporters holding placards and briefly held one saying “Warning Harney is a health hazard” before going inside.
When the case was called, State solicitor Jane Farrell told Judge Hugh O’Donnell “it is going for a hearing and will take half a day.”
Ms Minihan stepped forward and spoke once to confirm her name to the judge who remanded her on continuing bail pending a non-jury hearing of the case at the Dublin District Court on February 25th.
After the hearing, the councillor confirmed that she was pleading not guilty and contesting the allegations.
Ms Minihan was elected to the city council to represent Dublin’s South Central area in 2007 when she was a member of Sinn Féin.
She later left Sinn Féin and is now a member of the Éirígí party.