The ageing process cannot exacerbate the hearing damage sustained by a soldier who has served with the Defence Forces for 18 years, lawyers for the State argued in the High Court yesterday.
Mr James Nugent SC, for the Minister for Defence, suggested the ageing process "could not damage what was already damaged." He put it to a medical expert that anything ageing might do to the hearing of Pte Kevin Hanley (35), of Old Cork Road, Limerick, had already been done during his term in the Army.
Pte Hanley, who joined the Army in 1980, claims to have reduced hearing and tinnitus. He used rifles, mortars, grenades, anti-tank guns, blanks and thunder flashes during his service, which included four tours of duty in Lebanon.
Mr Padraig MacCartan SC, for Pte Hanley, said that towards the end of 1980 his client was supplied with plastic ear-plugs, which kept falling out and provided no protection. He was then given expandable plugs but was never shown how to use them. Pte Hanley had medical tests in 1995 and it was discovered he had significant hearing loss, particularly at between 3,000hz and 4,000hz. He was severely affected at 3,000hz and almost profoundly affected at 4,000hz. (The court was told that speech recognition varied from between 500hz and 4,000hz.)
Mr Nugent applied to amend the State defence, and said that in effect they were pleading the Green Book. The Green Book is the report of an expert group set up by the Government to determine a standard for measuring hearing loss. Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, for Pte Hanley, claimed that on July 9th the State had conceded liability and said the case would be proceeding on the assessment of damages only.
He said the State had amended its defence yesterday morning to say that if Pte Hanley was entitled to any damages, which the State denied, the amount should be computed in accordance with recent legislation.
Mr Justice Johnson said the Green Book was telling people "that things are normal when quite clearly they are not normal". He asked if it was not correct that the formula in the Green Book did not make an allowance for age?
Mr Nugent said that was partially correct. In the case of Pte Hanley the State would claim age was not a significant factor. Dr Stephen Flynn, called on behalf of the plaintiff, disagreed with Mr Nugent's suggestion that age could not damage what was already damaged. Mr Nugent said they would produce a medical expert to say that once damage was inflicted then the problem could not get worse with age.
Dr Flynn said that as long as there was hearing in Pte Hanley's ears there would be deterioration with age.
Pte Hanley said if he was with people and there was background noise he would find it difficult to understand what they were saying. He had to turn up the volume on the radio and television to the annoyance of his family.
The Army was his life and he intended after his current 21-year enlistment to continue until he was 60. His grading had been revised three months ago, and he was "pretty nervous" about whether he would be accepted to serve another period. The hearing continues today.