STATOIL Ireland Ltd has been refused an application in the High Court for the right to see the full competition Authority report which recommended to the Minister for Enterprise and Employment hat a takeover of Jet Oil be produced.
Mr Justice Barron said yesterday he considered it was a matter best left to the trial judge at the full hearing of the case which is due to begin on June 5th next.
Statoil Ireland Ltd and Conoco Ireland Ltd, trading as Jet Oil, are challenging a decision by the Minister, Mr Bruton, to prohibit the take over. The Minister made the prohibition order in February Last November the Minister had referred the proposed purchase to the Competition Authority for investigation. It recommended the should not be allowed to proceed.
Yesterday Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for the two companies, said his clients were entitled to see the full Competition Authority report advising against the takeover of Jet Oil as it was central to the fight between the parties.
They had received the published report, but passages and paragraphs were deleted. The Minister had indicated he would produce it at the trial and base his case on it.
Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, for the Minister, claimed that the Minister could not make full disclosure as she deleted passages contained commercially sensitive information.
Mr Justice Barron said one of the problems was that to understand the case fully it was necessary to understand what the evidence and issues would be in the case.
He had to balance the principle of confidentiality against the principle of justice seen to be done.
The judge said his view was that he was not in a position to know what the real impact a failure to produce the whole report would have on the plaintiffs' proceedings. If it was necessary for them to see the full report, then the trial judge would determine that.
He had to consider that they may suffer embarrassment as they had to make up their case ready for trial without knowing what was in the full report. This latter embarrassment was less important than what would occur if the full report was at this stage.
