Summonses were reissued yesterday against the owners of a Co Dublin hotel in which a waitress died in a fire last year. The health and safety prosecution against Byrne Hotels Ltd, owner of the Killiney Court Hotel at Killiney Bay, was dismissed on Tuesday because of the McCracken ruling, which found the appointment of the State's District Court clerks to be invalid.
The case is now due to come before Dublin District Court on December 16th after the Chief Solicitor's Office applied yesterday to have the summonses reissued by the District Court office.
Time limits involved in bringing health and safety prosecutions meant that unless the McCracken ruling was overturned in the Supreme Court the State had just two more days to initiate a new prosecution in this case.
Four summonses for alleged health and safety breaches have been issued in the case, which involved the death of Ms Pauline Henderson, who was burned to death on July 25th last year while staff were attempting to flambe a dessert during a wedding reception.
The reissuing of the summonses was described as a "significant development" by a Department of Justice spokesman, who suggested it showed that cases could be brought again despite the problems caused by the McCracken decision.
However, a large number of cases, mainly for road traffic offences, will have to be dropped if the State fails in its Supreme Court appeal against Mr Justice McCracken's ruling of last week, when he declared that District Court clerks should be appointed personally by the Minister for Justice, and not a civil servant as had been the practice.
All 185 clerks were reappointed to their posts by the Minister, Mr O'Donoghue, after the ruling on Friday. But as prosecutions for most summary offences, including drink-driving, speeding and parking offences, must be brought within six months of them occurring, those outside the time limit would have to be dropped.
A Department of Justice source said yesterday that anything between 5,000 and 15,000 summonses were in the process of being reissued, while 2,000 may have to be abandoned. But he stressed that these were figures which had "been mentioned" and it was far too early to be accurate about the extent of the problem.
In Cork, a District Court spokesman said the McCracken judgment was having no impact on hearings, with all cases being adjourned pending the Supreme Court appeal. Earlier this week gardai applied to have 70 cases adjourned by Judge Uinsin Mac Gruairc in Cork District Court, and a further 20 adjourned by Judge John O'Neill in the Juvenile Court. Both applications were granted.
At Tralee District Court yesterday, Insp Barry O'Rourke successfully applied to have 37 State cases withdrawn and 26 summonses adjourned as a result of the McCracken decision.
No date has been fixed for the State's Supreme Court appeal, but indications are that it will be held in the near future because of the urgency of the situation.
