A former sergeant major told the High Court yesterday he was suffering from noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus after more than 35 years' service in the Army.
Mr John Baldwin (55), a father of three, from Highfield Estate, Newbridge, Co Kildare, is claiming damages for personal injuries which he says he suffered as a consequence of negligence by the Minister for Defence, Ireland and the Attorney General.
Opening the action yesterday, Mr Alan Mahon SC, for Mr Baldwin, said the case was "somewhat unusual" in that liability was fully at issue.
The defendants were not only denying negligence but were disputing the medical position regarding his client and were further claiming the action was statute-barred, counsel said.
After lunch Mr Andrew Bradley SC, for the State, told Mr Justice Shanley that if the judge found Mr Baldwin suffered from noise-induced hearing loss and noise-induced tinnitus, then the defendants accepted this was due to his service in the Army and exposure to weapons.
Earlier the court heard Mr Baldwin joined the Army in 1959 and voluntarily retired last year. He claims to suffer from noise-induced deafness and tinnitus, which he became aware of from 1996. Mr Mahon said Mr Baldwin was not given any hearing protection at all until the 1980s. Even when he did get earplugs in the 1980s, these were inadequate and ill-fitting, counsel said. He said Mr Baldwin never received any advice or warning about the danger to his hearing from the noise to which he was exposed on the firing ranges.
In evidence Mr Baldwin said he had a continuous buzzing in his ears. He said this started coming and going around 1995 and was now constant. It was very annoying and prevented him sleeping properly.
He said he could not hear what people were saying to him and had problems with background noise. He also had to have the television turned up loud.
Cross-examined by Mr Bradley, he said the existence of deafness claims had been "common knowledge" within the force for the past few years. "I'd have to have been deaf completely if I wasn't aware of a person talking about that."
The hearing resumes before Mr Justice Shanley today.