The hearing of a High Court action in which Fianna Fail TD Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn alleges she was libelled by RTE journalist Charlie Bird and a retired farmer has been deferred until late this year.
Ms Cooper-Flynn alleges that between June 19th and July 1st 1998 she was libelled by RTE, Mr Bird and Mr James Howard of Accord Way, Wheaton Hall, Drogheda, Co Louth. She claims words were used in RTE interviews which meant she had advised and induced Mr Howard to evade his tax obligations by investing money in a particular way.
Last month, the High Court ordered National Irish Bank to reveal to lawyers for RTE and Mr Bird the names of 65 of the bank's clients alleged to have been beneficiaries of a financial investment scheme introduced by Ms Cooper-Flynn while she was employed by the bank.
The case was listed for hearing on July 4th, but yesterday Mr John Trainor SC, for RTE, applied to have it deferred to autumn. He told Ms Justice Carroll NIB had not been in a position to supply the 65 names until last Wednesday. The next day RTE's solicitors had written to those named on the list, asking whether they would be available to attend the court between July 4th and July 14th. The customers were asked if they would agree to be interviewed.
Mr Trainor said the list supplied was incomplete and the names of certain people who had made statements to Mr Bird were missing. Documents relating to Mr Howard were not in the discovery documents from NIB, and the matter raised questions about the involvement of others.
The position was that there were only four weeks left before the trial date. His clients would need time to establish the position in relation to the 65 clients and see if they were prepared to be interviewed.
RTE would want to subpoena those people if necessary. It also appeared, while they had been given addresses for the 65, NIB was not in a position to verify if those people were still at those addresses.
Ms Justice Carroll said she was satisfied that in the interests of a fair trial RTE, Mr Bird and Mr Howard were entitled to look into the names which were only disclosed to them last Wednesday. She adjourned the hearing of the action to the first day of jury trials in the Michaelmas law term in November.