Green Party Senator, Déirdre de Búrca, claims that East Coast Radio made a bad decision last year when it paid a large settlement to a businessman in North Wicklow who took a legal action against the radio station. The businessman had claimed that the radio station libelled him when it ran an interview with De Búrca on its news headlines, in which she claimed that works carried out by him were “unauthorised” and required planning permission.

The Green Party Senator made her comments about East Coast Radio after she received a recent ruling from An Bord Pleanála stating that the works carried out by the businessman at the time did require planning permission.

“To be fair this businessman had been told by the Planning Section of Wicklow County Council that the works he had carried out did not require planning permission” says De Búrca. “However, I felt that the council was wrong and disagreed publicly with the planning officials. East Coast radio broadcast my comments and the businessman took a case against the radio for libel”.

The Green Party Senator says that the radio station did no research into whether the works were unauthorised or not, but rather chose to join her to the case. “This meant that if East Coast had lost the case I would have had to pay all the costs” said De Búrca. “In fact the radio station put together a very poor case and seemed to rely on the hope that when the judge found against them, I would bear the costs. Luckily the judge released me from the case, as he said that East Coast Radio hadn’t provided a good enough legal reason for joining me”.

De Búrca says that the radio station behaved very strangely in the whole affair. She says that if she were a shareholder in the station that she would be very angry at its Board of Directors for the large settlement that was unnecessarily paid out to the businessman following the legal case he took against the station. “It cost me approximately 100 euros to refer the planning question to An Bord Pleanála and to find out that the works were unauthorised” she says. “It seems incredible that the radio station chose not to do its homework when putting forward its defence, and instead tried to have me bear the costs when it inevitably lost the case. As things turned out, East Coast Radio ended up having to pay out a large settlement to the businessman when it could have won the case. This was very strange behaviour indeed”. De Búrca says the case and the negative publicity surrounding the libel case was very damaging for her in the months leading up to the General Election. She says that the impression given by local media coverage of the legal action was that she had made a false allegation. She says she feels vindicated by the recent decision of An Bord Pleanála.

For further information please contact
Senator Déirdre de Búrca on (086) 806 14 50

Filed under:
Press Release by Deirdre