Dunnes Stores begins High Court action against Harney appointment

Dunnes Stores has begun a High Court action seeking to have the appointment of an authorised officer by the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment set aside. This litigation between Dunnes and the Minister is back in the High Court for a rehearing by direction of the Supreme Court. In July 1998, using the Companies Act, the Minister appointed an authorised officer to Dunnes Stores Ireland Company and Dunnes Stores (Ilac Centre) Ltd. The case is expected to last at least a week.

Litigation over the appointment of Gerard Ryan as authorised officer to two Dunnes Companies has been before the courts since 1998. Dunnes successfully challenged Minister Mary Harney's refusal to give reasons for the appointment. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court set aside a High Court order saying that the officer had been properly appointed and sent it back to the High Court for a full rehearing. This rehearing before Mr Justice Paul Butler opened today, with Senior Counsel Dermot Gleeson challenging the interpretation being placed on Section 19 of the Companies Act by the Minister.

This section covers the power to examine books and documents. Dunnes says that the Minister cannot fit the appointment of Mr Ryan into this section. They also say that the reasons she has given for the appointment do not pass muster. Mr Gleeson told the court that Dunnes Stores had co-operated with various inquires and with the McCracken and Moriarty Tribunals. Mrs Margaret Heffernan also gave assistance to the Minister in further investigations, but refused to hand over the private Price Waterhouse Report because of her concerns about the maintenance of its confidentiality.

Mr Gleeson said that Dunnes Stores is a private company and had righted its internal affairs. He said that there is no justification for the Minister to come along and engage in some sort of fiscal prurience: conducting an inquiry into matters that had been dealt with by the company and by the McCracken Tribunal. It is unfair of the State, he said, to continuously invoke new procedures to go over old material.