An army sergeant who had sued the Minister for Defence for damages for noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus was awarded £143 in damages at the High Court yesterday.
In his judgment in the case of Sgt Joseph Patrick Browne (37), a father of four, from Cedarwood Park, Newbridge, Co Kildare, Mr Justice O'Donovan found the sergeant has no current hearing disability and was entitled to no damages for that.
By the age of 62, through a combination of noise-induced hearing loss and age-related loss, the judge found the sergeant would have a 1.07 per cent hearing disability, entitling him to £143 damages.
The judge said he had "grave reservations" about whether the sergeant has tinnitus at all.
"This is something he may believe he has but I suspect it has been introduced by all these claims and by all the publicity associated with them," he remarked.
The judge said he had seen four audiograms in the present case of which three were virtually the same and had come up with the same results using the formula in the Green Book and he concluded that Sgt Browne has no current disability in his hearing.