High Court issues redacted version of Denis O'Brien/RTÉ judgment
The High Court has issued a redacted version of its judgment two weeks after it ordered RTE not to broadcast details of Denis O'Brien's banking arrangements with IBRC.
Some sections that would have been redacted from the judgment are now included because of comments made by Independent TD Catherine Murphy under Dáil privilege.
When Mr Justice Donald Binchy made an order two weeks ago prohibiting RTE broadcasting a story about Denis O'Brien and IBRC, he stopped the media reporting the details until his judgment was redacted.
But a week later, under Dáil privilege TD Catherine Murphy claimed Denis O'Brien was receiving a 1.25 % interest rate from IBRC and sought a continuation of a verbal agreement with the bank's special liquidators.
Mr Justice Binchy said yesterday that it was never intended to restrain TDs from making Dáil comments, or prevent reports about them.
Now the 48-page judgment is available with four redactions – there would have been more but the deputy's comments mean the information is already in the public domain.
The judgment does shed light on why Denis O'Brien stopped RTE's broadcast into corporate governance at the State-owned bank.
Mr Justice Binchy says if a verbal agreement was reached without approval from IBRC's credit committee it would be indicative of a failure of corporate governance, but he found no evidence of a substantive nature was presented to the court that would show that was the case.
