A charge of drink driving against the singer Joe Dolan was struck out in Portlaoise District Court yesterday because a key Garda witness was abroad on holidays.
Judge David Anderson described the non-attendance as "inexcusable" and said, because of it, he was throwing the case out. Mr Dolan, with an address at Dominick Street, Mullingar, had been charged with drink driving at Cullahill, Co Laois on December 10th, 2001.
The entertainer was in court yesterday where his solicitor, Mr Justin McQuaide, said they were anxious to proceed with the hearing.
However, Insp Liam Delaney of Portlaoise Garda Station, for the DPP, said he was disadvantaged by the fact that the garda who carried out an intoxilyzer test on the defendant, which was central to the prosecution, was not in court. The inspector said he believed the garda in question was overseas on holidays.
Requesting a week's adjournment, Insp Delaney conceded the situation was "unsatisfactory", adding he would have preferred to be in a position to proceed. However, he said the DPP believed the issue of a delay in hearing the case would be raised yesterday and, as a result, the case would be adjourned.
The inspector added he had only been informed the previous night that the garda would not be available to give evidence.
But Mr McQuaide said "the matter was clearly marked for hearing" yesterday. If the garda was not planning to attend, he should have informed a superior, and the defendant should have been afforded a letter to that effect.
Counsel said his client had been anxious to have the case heard at each previous sitting, and a further adjournment would be unfair. "This sort of thing is unacceptable," counsel added.
Judge Anderson said either the garda booked his holidays after the last sitting on June 19th last, when yesterday's hearing date was set, or he booked them before the date was set and failed to inform the court of his plans. Either way, it was "not very good", the judge said.
He added it was possible the garda went on holidays because he thought the issue of a delay would be raised but this did not excuse his non-attendance.
A previous application by the State to have the case adjourned for hearing by Judge Mary Martin, who presided over the June 19th sitting, was rejected.
Insp Delaney said Judge Martin had heard "substantial submissions" on that date on the delay issue, and that Judge Anderson "may be at a disadvantage" as a result. The inspector said that, at the end of the previous sitting, counsel for the defence indicated it would raise the delay issue again. But Mr McQuaide said yesterday he had no intention of doing so.
The inspector replied that, only five minutes earlier, counsel had said it would be raising the point of the delay. But now that it was disclosed the key witness would not be available "they have suddenly decided they will not".
Rejecting the application, Judge Anderson said the matter did not relate to the prosecution, adding that Judge Martin was probably not the person to hear the case due to her previous involvement. The only thing to stop the hearing from going ahead was an order of the High Court, he noted.
While the judge struck out the case, he did not refuse leave for it to be re-entered at a future date.
