A libel action against the Examinernewspaper was settled at the High Court yesterday on terms including an undisclosed sum and an apology which was read out in court.
The action, before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, was brought by Patrick Ferguson, administrator of the Construction Federation Operative Pension Scheme (CFOPS), Milltown Lane, Ashford, Co Wicklow, against Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited.
The judge was told it and similar proceedings by other plaintiffs had been settled and could be struck out. Eoin McCullough SC, for the newspaper, read the following apology: "In our November 18th, 2003, edition, we carried an article entitled 'Watchdog probes €35m pension scheme fraud' and we reported that the Pensions Board had launched an investigation into the CFOPS scheme following allegations of fraud on a massive scale.
"We acknowledge that this allegation was unfounded and untrue and that there was no such investigation. We wish to make it clear that the article was wrong if and insofar as it alleged that the trustees of the scheme or its administrators were or had been engaged in fraud and we sincerely apologise for the damages and distress caused both to them and to scheme members."