MARCH 9TH, 2009:Limerick Sinn Féin Cllr Maurice Quinlivan issued a press release criticising Mr O'Dea for using six civil servants in his department to do constituency work and for making unsolicited offers to assist applicants for planning permissions.
In response, Mr O'Dea, in an interview with the Limerick Chronicle, claimed that Mr Quinlivan was involved in some way in the operation of a brothel in an apartment at Clancy Strand in Limerick. "Do you know the brothel they found in his name and his brother's name down in Clancy Strand?" he asked journalist Mike Dwane.
MARCH 10TH: The Limerick Chroniclereported the Minister as saying: "I suppose I am going a bit too far when I say this but I'd like to ask Mr Quinlivan, is the brothel still closed?" The paper did not quote the Minister on his more detailed allegations.
APRIL 20TH: The High Court heard a plea from Mr Quinlivan for an injunction against Mr O'Dea from repeating his brothel allegations during the upcoming local election campaign, in which he was a candidate. In an affidavit to the court, Mr O'Dea said: "I most categorically and emphatically deny that I said to Mr Dwane that the plaintiff (Quinlivan) was a part-owner of the said apartment."
Mr Justice Cooke refused to give Mr Quinlivan an injunction to restrain Mr O’Dea from repeating the allegation on the basis that: “The defendant has emphatically denied that he ever made the substantive statement as to the plaintiff’s co-ownership of the apartment.”
JUNE 5TH: Mr Quinlivan was elected to Limerick City Council, and pursued an action against Mr O'Dea for defamation. In the course of discovery of documents, a tape-recording of the interview between Mr Dwane and Mr O'Dea was admitted into evidence.
DECEMBER 21ST: Mr O'Dea withdrew his denial of having made the statement about Mr Quinlivan's involvement with a brothel, and agreed to pay the Sinn Féin councillor damages plus his legal costs.
In a sitting before a different High Court judge on December 21st, the Minister’s apology to Mr Quinlivan was read out in court.
Part of the agreed statement to the court read: “Mr O’Dea accepts that all such implications and statements were false and defamatory of Mr Quinlivan and withdraws them in their entirety, and apologises to Mr Quinlivan both for making them and for denying having made them in court injunction proceedings brought by Mr Quinlivan to prevent their repetition.”
The statement also said: “It is not suggested by Mr Quinlivan that Mr O’Dea acted other than innocently in making such a denial and he accepts that there was no intention to mislead on the part of Mr O’Dea.”
