Colm Keaveney in defamation move against INM

The Fianna Fáil candidate in Galway East, Colm Keaveney, has initiated defamation proceedings against Independent News & Media in relation to an article about the group's largest shareholder, Denis O'Brien, and the Red Flag lobbying firm.

The High Court proceedings concern an article and accompanying graphic about the case where the businessman is alleging, among other matters, that Red Flag was involved in drafting a Dáil speech delivered by Mr Keaveney which was highly critical of Mr O’Brien. Mr Keaveney has said the speech was not influenced by any third party.

A spokesman for Mr Keaveney said he could not make any public comment about the defamation proceedings.

A spokesman for the Independent group said it did not wish to comment.

Mr O’Brien is accusing the lobbying firm of defamation and conspiracy to damage him. He is now seeking an order from the court obliging Red Flag to identify the client for whom it was working when it assembled material about the businessman which, he says, was disseminated in an effort to damage him.

Memory stick

Mr O’Brien’s case against the firm is based on the contents of a memory stick he says he was given anonymously.

The stick contains a number of documents, including drafts of the June 2015 Dáil speech by Mr Keaveney.

In his speech, the Deputy referred to the “criminality” uncovered by the Moriarty tribunal, which produced a report in 2011 about Mr O’Brien and the 1995 mobile phone licence competition.

The businessman's counsel, Michael Cush SC, said in court that examination of the USB stick indicated that Red Flag's chief executive Karl Brophy had been involved in the drafting of the speech and, if this was the case, it "begs the question, who paid him to craft a speech to be delivered under privilege in the Dáil?"

In a letter to The Irish Times last year, Mr Keaveney said "the speech I delivered in the Dáil was entirely composed by myself . . . No third party influenced, or contributed to, the contents of that speech in any way, shape or form."