Denis O’Brien’s bid to have Galway-based businessman Declan Ganley joined as a co-defendant in Mr O’Brien’s case against Red Flag Consulting will be heard in March.
Mr O’Brien believes Mr Ganley was Red Flag’s client for a dossier of material concerning Mr O’Brien but Mr Ganley has said he was not.
The dossier, which Mr O’Brien says was contained on a USB memory stick delivered anonymously to his Dublin office in October 2015, is at the centre of Mr O’Brien’s long-running action alleging defamation against Red Flag and a number of its executives and staff.
The dossier contained about 80 media reports and other material, including a document entitled: “Who is Denis O’Brien?” and “The Moriarty Tribunal Explainer”.
Red Flag denies defamation or conspiracy. It previously confirmed the dossier included its documents, and said there are significant issues concerning how Mr O’Brien got that material.
It has also argued it is entitled to preserve the anonymity of its client.
The case was initiated in October 2015 and there have been many pre-trial applications, including a number of unsuccessful bids to get orders requiring Red Flag to disclose the identity of the client.
When the application to join Mr Ganley was mentioned on Thursday before Mr Justice Seamus Noonan, Michael Cush SC, for Mr O’Brien, said he was seeking to join a co-defendant and to amend the statement of claim in the case.
Counsel said his application is being resisted and it was anticipated the matter would take two hours.
The judge said he would fix it for hearing on March 13th.
John Kerr BL, said he was appearing for the proposed co-defendant and wanted to provide affidavits.
The judge asked Mr Kerr who his client was and Mr Kerr said it was Declan Ganley.
The judge said there was an issue whether Mr Kerr could be heard on the joinder application as his client was not, at this point, a party to the proceedings.
Mr Cush indicated the normal procedure is that a joinder application would involve existing parties to proceedings, but the proposed co-defendant has been served with the papers. If Mr Ganley was joined, there was jurisprudence for setting that aside, he added.
William Abrahamson BL, for Red Flag, said it was not objecting to Mr Kerr’s application.
Mr Kerr said, arising from a particular statement in the grounding affidavit for the joinder application, his side wanted permission to file affidavits in response to that. What he was proposing made sense as the papers had been served on his side, he added.
The judge said what Mr Kerr proposed was “unusual” as his client was not a party to the case but he would give liberty to file the affidavits.
