A former Army corporal who realised he was losing his hearing when his wife complained he never listened to her was awarded more than £70,000 in damages in the High Court in Cork yesterday.
Mr Gerard Tyrell (42), of Beechwood Court, Mahon, Cork, was a corporal in the FCA and was involved in training other soldiers before he joined the Army, and served in Lebanon.
The job exposed him to regular gunfire noise over 13 years. Before going to Lebanon he received "battle inoculation", special training involving exposure to grenade noise and gunfire and the use of heavy weaponry.
He also used rifles and machineguns at least annually. "There was no protection for hearing," he told the court.
Now unemployed, Mr Tyrell served in the FCA from 1973 to 1979. From then until 1986 he was in the Army. He took his action against the Minister for Defence and the Attorney General.
The State did not deny liability.
He first became aware of his hearing loss about 1994, he told the court, when his wife complained that he never listened to her and she and their four children complained he kept the television on too loud.
"His hearing loss has been and will be progressive," his senior counsel, Dr John O'Mahony, said.
Medical evidence presented to the court showed that Mr Tyrell was suffering from "classical gunfire deafness" which would get worse as he grew older and which could not be helped by a hearing aid.
He has a current hearing loss of 17.5 per cent, which will increase to 24.6 per cent by the time he is 60.
Mr Justice Dermot O'Donovan said Mr Tyrell was a very honest witness. "I see no reason to doubt his evidence. He says plainly, `I am not deaf, I can hear on a one-to-one basis but I have difficulty with background noise or music. More often than not I am dependent on lip-reading.' His problem has got worse over the years."
In assessing damages, he would follow the Green Book formula used by the courts under the Civil Liability Act, 1988, Mr Justice O'Donovan said.
However, this did not take account of age-related deterioration in hearing, and for this he had followed the ISO1999 formula used by the judiciary in other cases.
He was therefore awarding £62,400 for loss of hearing to date, and another £8,000 for future hearing loss. He awarded costs to Mr Tyrell and refused an application by Mr Liam Crowley, for the State, for leave to appeal.
"Why does the State wish to appeal?" he asked. "I have followed the legislation to the letter."