PUBLIC INTEREST:THE ORDERS sought for Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society were matters of "vital public interest" related to taxpayer-owned institutions and the public should know what is happening, counsel for The Irish Timestold the court.
Cian Ferriter, for the paper, said the Minister’s application was being brought under the Credit Institutions Stabilisation Act, an Act still “in its infancy”.
While this was an ex-parte application as provided for under the Act, Mr Ferriter asked to be heard under both the Constitution and section 60 of the Act, which gives discretion to the court whether matters are heard in private or not. Mr Ferriter said the newspaper had concerns, based on a previous application under the Act (for the effective nationalisation of Allied Irish Bank when reporters were excluded) whether this case would also be heard in private.
However, The Irish Timesbelieved the Minister had taken an "appropriate and responsible" position in this case in deciding not to apply to have the matter heard in private but in seeking only to have certain commercially sensitive material excluded from publication.
Mr Ferriter was responding to statements by Brian Murray SC, for the Minister, that applications such as yesterday’s should be heard in public insofar as possible.
While there was some confidential material in affidavits and other documents, publication of which would be detrimental to the institutions involved, his side would redact that material, Mr Murray added.
He asked that the fact the application was being made, or its content, should not be published until the court had made the orders.
One of the effects of the court orders sought would be to switch off default clauses in agreements between the institutions and creditors, Mr Murray said. These might be described as events of default if they took place before the order was made but, once the order was made, this could not be default.
Mr Ferriter said there appeared to be strong reasons why it might be detrimental to the Minister's application if material was put in the public domain before any court order was made. While he accepted, under the Act, that the court could make directions about the timing of publication, the longer the public was kept in the dark, the more concerned The Irish Timeswould be.
Mr Ferriter said the State sought to prohibit publication of material deemed commercially sensitive and said his side could not gainsay that. The court had to satisfy itself the material was commercially sensitive and would be aware the Supreme Court had made clear any exceptions to the requirement that justice be administered in public should be narrowly construed, he said.
It was a matter of “involving institutions owned by the taxpayer to which public money had been given and the public should know what was happening”.
Mr Justice Brian McGovern was satisfied documents included material of a commercially sensitive nature. He was also satisfied it was wholly appropriate to prevent publication of the fact and content of the Minister’s application until any orders were made.
After the judge agreed to make the orders sought by the Minister, he was asked by lawyers for both The Irish Timesand RTÉ that the redacted order and certain redacted documents be given to the media. The matter was of public interest and the material should be provided, the judge said.
