LEGAL THREAT:PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Seán Gallagher threatened to sue the Louth County Enterprise Board earlier this year for allegedly making defamatory remarks about him in relation to a legal settlement concerning a €20,000 loan.
Mr Gallagher instructed solicitors to write to the chief executive of the board in August this year, having been contacted by a newspaper about a €20,000 loan a company with which he had been involved had received from the board in 2001.
The company was dissolved in 2003 and the funding was not repaid. It led to a protracted legal dispute between Mr Gallagher and the board.
Mr Gallagher maintained that the legal advice he had received was that the funding, issued in the form of 25,395 preference shares worth €1 each, was not repayable once the company was dissolved. His spokeswoman said the disputed figure was €20,000 and not €25,395.
The dispute was finally settled in 2008, when it was agreed that Mr Gallagher would pay a sum of €19,000 in a legal settlement, which was confidential on both parties.
Following the contact from the newspaper in August Mr Gallagher’s solicitors, O’Meara and Company, Edenderry, Co Offaly, wrote to the board contending that the manner in which the information was presented to the newspaper implied wrongdoing on his part and emanated from the board. The enterprise board, for its part, completely rejected the allegation.
The letter from Mr Gallagher’s lawyers, dated August 16th, asserted the information provided to the newspaper could only have come from a member of the board or associated parties.
“The recent action . . . constitutes a breach of confidentiality . . . and a flagrant abuse of process,” it stated. “[Mr Gallagher] is enduring an attack on his good name. This attack is entirely unacceptable and shall not be tolerated.
“We must therefore formally request that you immediately cease and desist from making any further defamatory and slanderous remarks to third parties regarding our client.”
The letter threatened to institute proceedings in the High Court. It also stated that Mr Gallagher had already suffered damage and loss and had “no option but to indicate an intention to institute legal proceedings seeking compensation”.
A spokeswoman for Mr Gallagher said yesterday the letter was written because it was indicated to Seán Gallagher that confidential information might be used to undermine his campaign.
“The information could only have come from the enterprise board,” said the spokeswoman.
Asked if he still intended to seek damages from the board, she said it was a matter for Mr Gallagher’s legal team.
The board responded a week later through its solicitors, Daniel O’Connell in Dundalk. The letter stated that the board “did not make defamatory and slanderous remarks to a national newspaper (or to any third party)”.
The letter acknowledged the board had been contacted by the newspaper but it maintained it was in possession of details of the case that were already in the public domain. The letter then instanced a possible case for that. The case was in open court on two occasions, once in 2008, and in the Circuit Court on September 3rd, 2009, when consent orders were made. “[The board] did not have any discussion with the newspaper . . . that touched upon wrongdoing on the part of your client or inappropriate and fraudulent actions on the part of [Mr Gallagher],” it stated.
“The information given by the board concerning the resolution of the case was that it was settled amicably,” it stated.
