Johnston and 'Star' agree on costs

An agreement has been reached between Government press secretary Mandy Johnston and the Star newspaper over the costs Ms Johnston is to pay arising from her unsuccessful libel action against the newspaper.

A High Court Taxing Master, Charles Moran, was told yesterday of the settlement and adjourned the matter to October 17th. If the settlement is not implemented by that date, Mr Moran will make a ruling fixing the costs.

No details of the settlement were disclosed yesterday but legal sources estimate that the newspaper could have sought costs of €60,000-€70,000 and the settlement was likely to be in that range.

Ms Johnston will also have to pay her own costs of the two-day action. Ms Johnston had sued the newspaper and journalist John Donlon arising from publication on September 14th, 1996, of an article by Mr Donlon which, she claimed, would lead people to assume she was a person of "low moral calibre".

In February last year, a High Court jury decided that the article, either by itself or in the context of photographs published beside it, did not mean that Ms Johnston is or was a person of low moral character. Longford-born Ms Johnston was appointed Fianna Fáil press officer shortly before the publication. She claimed the article could have led people to assume she was a person of "low moral calibre" who would go about her business in the same manner as English call-girl Mandy Rice-Davies in the 1960s.

The article was under the heading "Mandy aims for a shock".

It stated: "The sexual shenanigans of Mandy Rice-Davies in the Profumo affair brought the British government to its knees in 1964. Now another Mandy hopes to topple John Bruton from his perch. She is the lovely Mandy Johnston, Fianna Fáil's second press officer drafted in to help Marty Whelan.

"One Mandy brought down a government and I hope to do the same, the Longford lass proclaimed on her appointment. As Bertie Ahern's batgirl she will be beavering away trying to knock chunks off the coalition in the run-up to the next election."