WICKLOW COUNTY Council was served with a book of evidence yesterday after it was alleged that it failed to ensure the safety, health and welfare of its firefighters operating from Bray fire station.
It follows the deaths of two firemen in a blaze at a disused factory four years ago. The council, as a corporate body, is facing four charges in connection with the deaths of Mark O’Shaughnessy (25) and Brian Murray (46) who were killed as they fought a fire at a building in Bray in September 2007.
Yesterday, at Bray District Court, Seamus Boyle for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the book of evidence had been served on the council. He also said the DPP had consented to the matter being sent forward for trial at Wicklow Circuit Court, sitting in Bray, on December 6th.
Det Garda Maurice Hickey told the court that, prior to the brief hearing, he had served the book of evidence on Tom Murphy, from the council’s corporate affairs division. Judge Murrough Connellan adjourned the matter to December 6th.
In court for the brief hearing were Mary Murray, the widow of the late Mr Murray, and some of the couple’s 15 children. Colleagues of the firefighters were also in court.
The charges against the council allege that between September 2005 and 2007 it failed to discharge its duty to ensure the safety, health and welfare at work of its firefighters.
No effective system of control and communication was established or co-ordinated by the council, the charges add, “. . . as a result of which Brian Murray and Mark O’Shaughnessy suffered personal injury”.