A non executive director of Independent News and Media has begun a High Court action alleging that a payment of almost €2m to former IN&M CEO Gavin O'Reilly when he stepped down last week was unlawful and unjustified.
Paul Connolly, one of two directors on the IN&M board representing the company's biggest shareholder Denis O'Brien, says the payment was made with "indecent haste".
He claims Mr O'Reilly presided over a period of destruction of the company's share value.
Mr Connolly has brought proceedings seeking declarations that the payment breached Section 186 of the Companies Act because it was approved by the board without being put before the company's shareholders at a general meeting.
Lawyers for Mr Connolly got permission from Mr Justice Peter Kelly to apply next Monday to have the proceedings fast-tracked in the commercial division of the court.
