The Prison Officers' Association has admitted that a ballot it carried out in June 1997 on the Programme for Competitiveness and Work was flawed, the High Court heard yesterday. The acknowledgment was contained in settlement terms of an action brought by six POA members against the POA and seven of its then officers.
Mr John Rogers SC, representing prison officers Maurice Doyle, Eugene Garrigan, Daniel Gallagher, John Reddin, James Byrne and John Mullen, said that both sides had agreed to strike out proceedings with an order for the plaintiffs' costs to be taxed in default of agreement. In settlement terms handed into court it was agreed that the defendants' costs would be borne by the association.
In the settlement, the six plaintiffs accepted that the seven named defendants - Michael Lawton, Denis McGrath, Thomas Hoare, David O'Neill, Raymond Murphy, Derek Murphy and Brian Byrne - had at all times acted in good faith in their capacity as office-holders of the POA in 1997.