SENIOR OFFICIALS of Wicklow County Council, including its law agent, have been accused of a “possibly unprecedented” attempt to undermine the cross-examination of an expert witness in the High Court.
Wicklow County Council is seeking orders under the Waste Management Act against John O’Reilly, former owner of an illegal dump at Whitestown in west Wicklow.
The council is also seeking orders against Brownfield Restoration Ireland Ltd, which bought the lands from Mr O’Reilly in 2003; and two waste companies, Swalcliffe Ltd, trading as Dublin Waste, and Dean Waste Co Ltd, formerly trading as A1 Waste.
When the resumed hearing got under way in Dublin yesterday, James Connolly SC for Wicklow County Council told Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe “extra matters” had come to his attention which necessitated the making of affidavits by Phillip Duffy, senior engineer with Wicklow County Council.
The affidavits related to contact between expert witness Donal Ó Laoire and Mr Duffy, which Mr Duffy now believed may have been in contravention of an undertaking given to the court.
The undertaking related to Mr Ó Laoire not being given access to the evidence of Wicklow county manager Eddie Sheehy before Mr Ó Laoire gave his own evidence.
However, Ian Finlay SC, for Brownfield Restoration, recalled that on Friday last, it had been made known that Mr Ó Laoire had been sent transcripts of Mr Sheehy’s evidence “with the knowledge of Wicklow County Council’s law agent” David Sweetman.
Now the court was being told that Mr Ó Laoire had spoken to Mr Duffy on the phone, he said. Mr Finlay noted that the court was also told that Mr Ó Laoire had attempted on another occasion to contact a junior counsel for Wicklow County Council by e-mail.
Mr Finlay stressed he wanted “to make it clear that I have today the greatest regard for Mr Connolly as a colleague and for his professional integrity”, but “the same cannot be said to be true for his client, Wicklow County Council”.
Mr Finlay said details of the contacts demonstrated someone in the county council was anxious to make Mr Ó Laoire aware of Mr Sheehy’s evidence, in contravention of the undertaking which he said had the same import as a ruling of the court.
He maintained the failure of a number of the parties to voluntarily inform the court of the full extent of the contacts last week was “a possibly unprecedented attempt” to undermine a High Court cross-examination.
However Mr Connolly told the court he wished to take issue with Mr Finlay’s submission “that Wicklow County Council were in some way involved in active concealment from the court.”
He said Mr Duffy made his concerns known last Thursday evening immediately after the issue of the undertaking arose and he realised he had a duty to disclose the conversation with Mr Ó Laoire.
The parties had been advised on Friday.
In his evidence to the court, Mr Ó Laoire said he had trouble recalling the detail of the calls and the e-mail.
He had become emotionally upset the evening before he was due to give evidence as he had discovered a document relating to an alleged conflict of interest he had in advising Wicklow County Council on the clean-up of Whitestown, while also forming his own consortium to get the contract to repair the dump.
A major reason for his upset, he said, was that the date of the document had coincided with his mother’s death seven years earlier.
He had telephoned Mr Duffy because he was aware he had recently lost his wife and he felt Mr Duffy might empathise. He had little recollection of discussing matters before the court, he said.
