‘Irish Times’ outlines approach to vindicating right to report

The Irish Times will apply to the High Court on Tuesday morning, separately to RTÉ, seeking confirmation that a Dáil statement about Denis O'Brien's banking arrangements can be reported.

The Editor of The Irish Times Kevin O’Sullivan said in a statement on Sunday the newspaper was committed to reporting on matters of major public interest, particularly those raised by members of the Dáil and Seanad.

“With that in mind, we will be applying to the High Court on Tuesday morning (separately to RTÉ) to seek confirmation that the statements can be reported,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“We believe that to be the responsible and appropriate way to vindicate our right to report on these matters, and the public’s right to know them.”

He said The Irish Times “would very much have wished” to bring the matter to court before Tuesday, but said that was the first available opportunity to make an application.

Mr O’Sullivan’s statement outlines the sequence of events that led to the current controversy.

He said last Thursday, Independent TD Catherine Murphy made statements to the Dáil regarding Mr O’Brien’s banking arrangements with IBRC.

Some of the information disclosed by Ms Murphy in her statements was information which the High Court had already considered in the O’Brien-v-RTÉ case.

The Court ordered last week the information could not be reported pending a full hearing, “and therefore we are bound by it”.

Legal advice to The Irish Times was that reporting Ms Murphy’s Dáil statement in full would involve a breach of the injunction.

It was not clear that the absolute privilege referred to in Article 15.12 of the Constitution would afford The Irish Times privilege in such a way as to allow for a disregarding of the Court Order.

“In those circumstances we amended our initial online report and reported the issue in the fullest possible way, having regard to the Court order,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“Shortly afterwards, solicitors for Denis O’Brien wrote to The Irish Times asserting that reporting of Ms Murphy’s statements would result in an application to court to enforce the injunction.”