News

Shipping company faces trial over fatal workplace accident at Dublin Port

A SHIPPING company faces trial accused of breaking health and safety laws following the death of a father-of-two after a workplace accident at Dublin Port.

James Byrne, who was in his late 30s and from Lucan in Co. Dublin, was rushed to the Mater Hospital after an incident on June 6, 2018.

He was later pronounced dead and an investigation was carried out by the Health and Safety Authority.

The Doyle Shipping Group Unlimited, otherwise known as the Doyle Shipping Group, with an address at Ocean Pier, Alexandra Road, Dublin 1, was served with a summons alleging a number of health and safety failings.

The firm is a leading shipping and logistics company providing a range of marine services.

The case was listed before Judge Anthony Halpin at Dublin District Court today.

The Director of Public Prosecutions directed trial on indictment meaning it will be dealt with in the Circuit Court. Judge Halpin adjourned the case for six weeks for the preparation of a book of evidence.

The firm, which has not yet indicated how it will plead, faced five charges under Section 77 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act.

It has been accused of failing to conduct work activities, specifically the dismantling of a steel hopper at the McKearns Yard, at Ocean Pier, in a way to ensure the safety of employees, which necessitated that an employee worked in a danger zone at the base of stanchions which allegedly had no support in place to prevent them toppling in an uncontrolled manner.

The firm also faced a charge for failing to provide systems of work that were planned, performed, maintained and revised to be, so far as reasonably practicable, without risk.

It was alleged that as a consequence, the firm’s employee James Byrne suffered personal injury and died.

The fifth charge was for failing to identify hazards associated with the dismantling work, failing to assess the risks presented, or to be in possession of a written risk assessment.

Irish Independent

Hospital apologises for failings as Jack (4) receives €2.5m for brain damage during birth

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy left brain-damaged at birth won a €2.5m interim settlement and a public apology from hospital chiefs in court yesterday.

Jack McGahern Donaghey’s mother, Denise McGahern, spoke after the hearing of her relief at the end of a “very tough battle” to win justice for her son, who has cerebral palsy.

At the High Court, Letterkenny University Hospital apologised for the failings that caused Jack’s injuries.

Hospital general manager Sean Murphy said he wished to express sincere apologies for the failings and the “consequential trauma suffered by him and you, his parents and his family”.

“The hospital understands that neither this apology nor the financial compensation … can negate the continuing heartache that the McGahern Donaghey family must feel every day and appreciate that this continues to be a very difficult time for you,” the apology continued.

Jack’s parents Denise and Seamus were in court as the apology was read out and the interim settlement reached after mediation was approved.

Outside court, Ms McGahern said: “With this interim settlement Jack will get the best support and care and help that he needs. This has been a very stressful time for our family.

“Although the interim settlement has been achieved today, it has been a very tough battle over the last three years between us and the HSE, causing us anxiety and worry.

“Whilst the apology from the HSE is welcome, we are saddened and weary of the legal process and struggle to understand why it took this legal road to bring about an explanation and produce an apology.”

Ms McGahern said they would like lessons to be learned from what happened to Jack and they never wanted “this tragedy to be visited on any other family”.

Jack, she said, is a wonderful little boy “who is the light of our lives” and the interim settlement will allow them to move on positively from “what has been an horrendous ordeal”.

Jack, of Killygordon, Co Donegal, had sued the HSE through his mother over the circumstances of his birth on August 5, 2015.

It was claimed there was a failure to recognise the maternal heart rate was being recorded instead of the foetal heart rate.

There was also an alleged failure to recognise the loss of the foetal heart rate during the active second stage of Ms McGahern’s labour.

It was further claimed there was a failure to adequately or accurately assess, diagnose or follow up on the baby’s heart rate during labour. The court heard liability was conceded in the case last month.

Gabriel Gavigan SC, for Jack, asked that the case be adjourned for 10 years when the court will be asked to make an assessment of Jack’s future care needs.

Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said the bulk of the money will go toward Jack’s care.

Irish Independent

Driver sacked for causing a ‘grave danger’ at fuel depot gets €12,000

A fuel lorry driver who posed a “grave danger” to safety by driving at twice the speed limit has been awarded €12,000 for unfair dismissal.

The driver was sacked by his employer, a distribution company, over his speeding and overtaking another truck, which nearly resulted in a collision at the Joint Fuel Terminal (JFT) in Dublin Port.

The JFT stores more than 60,000 tonnes of combustibles, including jet fuel, petrol, ethanol and diesel.

The driver had been driving at a maximum of 34kmh in a 15kmh zone in October 2018.

He was sacked over the incident after his employer decided that the driver’s actions put himself and his colleagues in danger.

He sued for unfair dismissal and in his findings, WRC adjudication officer Eugene Hanly found the dismissal was fair on substantive grounds but that the dismissal was unfair on procedural grounds.

He stated: “I have decided that this renders the dismissal unfair.”

Mr Hanly also ordered that the driver receive an additional €9,200 or eight weeks’ notice that went unpaid.

The adjudication officer stated that driving at a maximum of 34kmh in the area was a very serious matter and that it had the potential to be a disaster given where the incident occurred.

He found that on the balance of probability, the fuel lorry driver was speeding, had exceeded the allowable speed for safety reasons and so drove dangerously.

Mr Hanly also found the fuel lorry driver tried to overtake another truck, which was a most serious matter “and posed a very grave danger to safety in that depot”.

He ruled that what happened warranted a very serious response from the employer and the decision to dismiss was substantively fair.

However, on the procedures around the driver’s dismissal, Mr Hanly pointed out that the driver failed, or was unable, to attend disciplinary investigation meetings that led the employer to make a decision to dismiss him in his absence, despite their written warning of that possibility.

He found the employer should have postponed that meeting until the driver had recovered from an illness, despite the fact that he had not been co-operative with the investigation.

Mr Hanly also found that the employer was wrong to dismiss him in such circumstances.

He stated that the fuel driver made a substantial contribution to his dismissal and he was constantly uncooperative during the disciplinary process. The driver “continuously sought to delay the process and to frustrate it”.

Mr Hanly stated that the driver’s “constant acts of obfuscation have led me to conclude that he was becoming unmanageable”.

He added that reinstatement or re-engagement was not appropriate, “because I have concluded that the bond of trust has been broken”.

Irish Independent

Former PR consultant awarded €1.25m for defamation loses bid to cut €165,000 fee

Former public relations consultant Monica Leech has lost her High Court challenge over rulings allowing a €165,000 instruction fee and certain other costs to a law firm which represented her in a defamation case over articles in the ‘Evening Herald’ 15 years ago.

A High Court jury had in 2009 awarded Ms Leech €1.87m damages plus costs over the articles, but in 2015 the Supreme Court reduced the award on appeal to €1.25m, plus costs.

Ms Leech had instructed solicitors McCann Fitzgerald (MCF) in late 2004 to represent her in defamation proceedings over the ‘Evening Herald’ articles and also in defamation actions against other titles in the Independent Newspapers Group.

After the MCF retainer was terminated in August 2011, Ms Leech later instructed a Co Waterford-based firm, Kenny Stephenson Chapman.

Issues concerning exactly what costs are to be paid to Ms Leech by Independent Newspapers arising from the €1.25m award have been parked pending the outcome of the taxation of the solicitor/client costs.

Ms Leech had represented herself in proceedings before a High Court Taxing Master concerning the fees and costs claimed by MCF under its seven-year retainer.

Represented by William Fitzgerald, instructed by Kenny Stephenson Chapman, Ms Leech later sought a High Court review of the Taxing Master’s rulings. MCF, represented by Alan Keating BL, opposed her proceedings

Yesterday, Mr Justice Anthony Barr held there was no basis to set aside the Taxing Master’s decisions.

Ms Leech had sought to raise new grounds of objection concerning how the Taxing Master had quantified the fee when the law clearly stated “that cannot be done”.

The Taxing Master calculated the total solicitor’s professional fees at €238,813, not a €253,755 sum claimed as due on a time-assessment basis.

The solicitor had voluntarily applied a 30pc reduction to allow for overlapping work on the other defamation cases. The Taxing Master also applied that 30pc cut to conclude the net fee was €173,178 and applied further reductions to bring the total to €165,000.

Ms Leech argued the Taxing Master made errors, including taking €253,755 as the “headline figure” when quantifying. She argued the proper net instructions fee was €154,584.

Mr Justice Barr said any error in the headline figure used under the time billing section was “not that significant” as it was but the starting point for calculation of the fees on a time basis.

Irish Independent

‘Tragic case’ – woman who killed pedestrian and seriously injured three after losing control of car jailed

A woman who lost control of her vehicle and mounted a footpath killing one pedestrian and seriously injuring three others has been jailed for two years.

Rosemarie Gallagher’s (61) convertible car glanced off a tree, crashed into a stone wall and railings, before it collided with the deceased man Benjamin Renard (24) and three other men. All four men were thrown into the air at the the point of impact.

All four victims were walking home from work during rush hour on a summer evening in Dublin city centre.

The vehicle then collided with a stone pillar at the entrance of a creche, causing the car to flip over onto its side before it landed passenger side down and spun off the footpath out onto the road.

Gallagher of Belville Lodge, Donnybrook, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one charge of dangerous driving causing death and three further charges of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm on Adelaide Road, Dublin 2 on August 22, 2017. She has no previous convictions.

Mr Renard died 15 days later after his life support was withdrawn in hospital. He had sustained skull fractures and extensive hemorrhaging which caused swelling of his brain and the injuries were considered non-reversible.

The court heard the young French national had been living in Ireland for a number of years at the time and was on his way home from work as an accountant manager with the company LinkedIn.

Gallagher had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) 26 years earlier but was considered medically fit to drive. She appeared in court in a wheelchair as her condition has since deteriorated.

Gallagher had, however, failed to disclose to her GP an accident in June 2015 in Rathfarnham, Dublin, when she inexplicably reversed her car into a vehicle waiting in line behind her to exit a car park.

After colliding with that car, her car continued to reverse and didn’t stop until it crashed into two parked cars.

After the fatal collision in 2017 Gallagher told a garda who met her in hospital that she suffered from MS and her leg had stiffened while driving. Gallagher was uninjured in the crash.

Mr Renard’s mother, Sandrine Fleurbaix, read her victim impact statement with the assistance of an interpreter.

She said she had experienced “misery” since the death of her beloved son, her only child, who was her life.

“My life was my son. Never will I have grandchildren to love or to spoil. My future is empty, my son was my life, without him I am nothing, the pain is too much to bear,” Ms Fleurbaix said.

She described Mr Renard as a bright man who loved to travel.

“I was very proud of him. Never again will my son say Mam I love you, he was so close to me,” she said.

“Mrs Gallagher is guilty of my son’s death because she knew she was sick, my son would still be alive. I no longer live, I survive the loss of my son,” Ms Fleurbaix concluded.

Mr Renard’s father, Laurent Renard, said he had the privilege and honour of being the father of Benjamin for 24 years. He described him as always smiling and kind and said he was passionate to discover the different cultures of the world.

He spoke of the fundraising activities that his son took part in, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and his love for playing basketball.

“The incident always wakes me up. I see the image of my son in a coma,” Mr Renard continued.

He suggested that Gallagher should not have given herself the right to drive, knowing she was sick.

“The incident could have been avoided,” he said before he later added that he cannot accept the excuse from Gallagher.

He said she killed his son and he is no longer the man he was as a result of losing his son.

The three other men injured in the crash, Pierce Kenny (31), Joseph Tynan (27) and James Moore (38), suffered various bone fractures.

Judge Martin Nolan described it as “a tragic and lamentable case” and said it was beyond dispute that Gallagher lost control of her car and caused the death of Mr Renard and serious injury to the three men.

He said it seemed to him from the evidence that Gallagher lost control by reason of her condition.

“She suffered some spasm that affected her legs and I can infer that she hit the accelerator and couldn’t control the vehicle,” Judge Nolan said.

He said that Gallagher was “well warned of the characteristics of her condition” and he noted that if she had reported the accident in 2015 to her doctor there would have been a question of whether she should been allowed to drive or not.

“It seems she must have known of her problems while driving as evidenced by her driving at Rathfarnham. It seems she should not have been driving. A doctor probably would not have certified her to drive,” Judge Nolan said.

He said it was also clear that Gallagher wanted to live an independent life and was a woman of “extraordinary intelligence and industry”.

“She has beaten the odds in terms of what she can and cannot do. She has a productive and professional life and is a generous and good hearted person,” Judge Nolan continued referring to Gallagher’s work in sourcing temporary accommodation for homeless children.

He said there was no doubt that Gallagher was remorseful and ashamed of her actions but added that her driving caused a death, which he said was “a particular tragedy” for Mr Renard’s parents and caused difficulties for those injured.

Judge Nolan said a custodial sentence was necessary and said the two year term would have been “considerably longer” had it not been for Gallagher’s “present lamentable condition”. He disqualified her from driving for three years and refused to postpone her incarceration until after Christmas.

Irish Independent

Man who claimed 42 acres of land near Dublin Airport ‘sold too cheap’ by father in 1992 loses appeal

A man who claimed 42 acres near Dublin Airport was “sold too cheap” by his father in 1992 has been prohibited from bringing any more legal cases over the property without the permission of the High Court.

The Court of Appeal ruling follows nearly 20 years of litigation over the sale by Mark Monks’ late father James and his mother Ella of the land at Huntstown House, Cloghran, to the Dublin Airport Authority’s (DAA) predecessor Aer Rianta for IR£340,000 (€431,000).

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) requires part of the site to build a new air traffic control tower.

James Monks died in 1996 and in 2000 Aer Rianta issued proceedings against Mark Monks, as executor of his father’s estate, seeking vacant possession of the land and payment of rent arrears for it.

A settlement was reached in 2004 whereby Mr Monks and his mother agreed to deliver up vacant possession.

In February 2017, the DAA and the IAA got a High Court injunction preventing Mr Monks from trespassing on the land. The previous month Mr Monks had issued his own proceedings against the DAA and IAA seeking an order he was the beneficial owner of the land.

In July 2017, the High Court ruled the DAA/IAA had good title and Mr Monks had failed to establish adverse possession rights. The court also lifted a legal bar, called alis pendens, on dealing with the property which had been obtained by Mr Monks.

Later in July 2017, the court also struck out Mr Monks action as frivolous, vexatious and bound to fail.

In October 2017, Mr Monks issued further proceedings claiming that, during the 1992 sale of the land, Aer Rianta coerced his father to enter the contract of sale in the knowledge that he (James Monks) was seriously ill at the time.

Mr Monks also argued the new case related to different land from the 1992 sale and concerned a 1.6 acre plot.

He also claimed his father and mother’s signatures on the sale were fraudulent and the “land was sold too cheap.” The claims were denied.

Arising out of those proceedings, then-High Court judge Brian McGovern, who had already ruled the DAA/IAA were owners, said it was “beyond belief” Mr Monks brought further proceedings within days of his judgement.

Mr Justice McGovern made an order, called an “Issac Wunder”, restraining Mr Monks from bringing any more proceedings in relation to the land without the permission of the court.

Mr Monks appealed the Issac Wunder order arguing his proceedings should not have been struck out because they related to a 1.6 acre plot across the road from a section known as McCabe’s field.

The Court of Appeal (CoA) found there was no evidence before the High Court supporting his claim and he was unable to identify the legal basis for it when asked to do so.

Mr Justice Robert Haughton, on behalf of the three-judge CoA, was satisfied the Issac Wunder order made by the High Court was appropriate and proportionate particularly as Mr Monks had only raised the 1.6 acre plot for the first time during the appeal.

Mr Justice Maurice Collins, in a separate judgment, agreed with Mr Justice Haughton.

He said however if Mr Monks can formulate an arguable and plausible claim in relation to the 1.6 acres, it would be open to him to ask the High Court for leave to institute proceedings in relation to it.

Irish Independent

Girl (7) who crushed fingers in restaurant door settles action for €45,000

A seven-year-old child, who suffered crush injuries three years ago to two of her fingers in a restaurant, has been made a settlement of €45,000 damages for personal injuries.

Barrister Pat Purcell told the Circuit Civil Court today that a door in The Old Schoolhouse Restaurant, Swords, had closed on Paula Buliauskite’s right hand, crushing her right middle and ring finger on her right hand.

He said Paula, who sued Riverside Investments, trading as The Old Schoolhouse, Swords, through her mother, Busmane, had been taken to hospital where she had come under the care of a plastic surgeon.

Mr Purcell told Judge John O’Connor that Paula had suffered a significant injury and on the day following the incident, had to have surgery on both fingers while under general anaesthetic. She had been left with scarring on both fingers.

Counsel said the Personal Injuries Board had assessed compensation for Paula, of Swords Manor, Swords, Co Dublin, at €45,000 and he was recommending it to the court.

Judge O’Connor said he considered the assessment appropriate and approved of it.

Irish Independent

Property developer Conor Clarkson now faces bankruptcy as he loses €70m debt deal over forged document

An application for a personal insolvency arrangement writing off more than €70m in debts has been withdrawn after it emerged a forged document was submitted to the High Court.

The dramatic development came in a case involving well-known businessman and horse owner Conor Clarkson.

He claimed transactions recorded in his bank account totalling over €4,000 related to purchases from a computer outlet. An invoice was supplied to the court to support his story, but it emerged yesterday the invoice was not genuine.

Mr Justice Denis McDonald said the case raised serious issues and he would have to consider whether to take further action. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Clarkson said: “The whole process of the High Court application has been a huge amount of pressure and sadly a mistake was made, which I accept ownership of.”

Mr Clarkson, a property developer whose horse Kicking King won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2005, had been facing questions from his main creditor, financial fund Promontoria (Arrow) Ltd, about expenditure recorded in his bank account.

This included more than €4,000 in transactions labelled ‘NCL Reservations’.

Lawyers for Promontoria queried whether the money was spent with the cruise company Norwegian Cruise Line.

But Mr Clarkson claimed the spending related to purchases from an English company, First National Computers Limited and an invoice was produced in court to support his claims.

However, it emerged yesterday an affidavit had been sworn on behalf of the computer outlet firm denying it issued any such invoice.

The affidavit was brought to the court’s attention by Promontoria’s counsel Eoin Martin.

Mr Justice McDonald said the invoice was invalid or, to use Mr Martin’s words, a forgery. The revelation prompted Mr Clarkson’s personal insolvency practitioner to withdraw the application.

The judge had been due to give a ruling on the application next February.

Instead, Mr Clarkson, with an address in Stepaside, Dublin 18, now faces the prospect of bankruptcy.

Mr Justice McDonald said the case raised serious issues for the court as debtors have an obligation to fully disclose matters relating to their finances. He said the situation went beyond a failure to disclose, that an effort had been made to mislead the court, and he would have to consider further measures.

Mr Clarkson’s debts related to investments in property made prior to the financial crash of a decade ago.

Supported by Irish Nationwide Building Society, his company Ardenhill Property invested in property in the north of England.

Following the financial crash his debts ended up in Nama and were later sold to Promontoria, an Irish affiliate of vulture fund Cerberus.

Promontoria is his largest creditor and is owed €64m.

Under the proposed personal insolvency arrangement, a lump sum payment of €100,000 would have been available to the businessman’s debtors.

It was argued this was a better deal for creditors than forcing him into bankruptcy.

Mr Clarkson told the Irish Independent he had worked “exceptionally hard with many creditors to work out the company debt position” over the past decade.

He said Nama accepted he had fully assisted it and Promontoria had, to the best of his knowledge, been satisfied with his cooperation.

“This whole episode over the last 10 years has created the most enormous pressure for me. I have tried to handle it as best I can,” he said.

“But the whole process of the personal insolvency situation, where Promontoria agreed to allow me to enter the process and then for some reason subsequently changed their mind, has had a huge effect on me.

“I worked so hard with them and for them to allow me into a process and then to unilaterally turn around has had a very, very serious effect on me.

“Sadly the net result of this is all creditors will be worse off as a result of the failure of this personal insolvency arrangement and the fact I will probably have to consider going into bankruptcy.”

Irish Independent

The cost of motor insurance claims fell by 2.5 per cent between 2009 and 2018 but premiums rose by 42 per cent, according to a Central Bank report which also revealed that insurers made an average of 9 per cent profit last year.

The first comprehensive study of premiums and cost claims in Ireland appears to cast doubt on longstanding industry claims that the higher cost of car insurance is the result of spiralling payouts and increased claims, resulting in low profitability.

It found that the average cost of claims per policy fell by 2.5 per cent from €437 to €426 between 2009 and 2018 while average premiums jumped by 42 per cent from €498 to €706.

Disparity

The disparity is even starker when looking at the last five years. The report found that while the average cost of claims per policy rose by 14 per cent between 2013 and 2018 average premiums rose by 62 per cent.

The Central Bank’s Private Motor Insurance Report of the National Claims Information Database also revealed that the industry here generated an average operating profit of 9 per cent last year, nearly twice the level of profitability seen in UK.

While injury claims only account for about 8 per cent of total claim numbers, they account for 75 per cent of total claim costs, reflecting the higher payouts awarded in personal injury cases. Conversely while damage claims account for 92 per cent of total claims, they only account for 25 per cent of claim costs.

Another area of focus was the various channels through which settlements are made, which revealed the relatively high legal costs involved when claims end up in the courts.

The report identified three broad channels through which claims are typically resolved; through the insurers themselves; through the Personal Injury Assessment Board (PIAB); and as a result litigation.

Between 2015 and 2018, over a half of all injury claims were settled directly by insurers while 31 per cent were settled through litigation with the remaining 16 per cent of cases through PIAB.

The average compensation achieved in direct settlements was just under €12,000 with average legal cost estimated at 12 per cent or €1,385 of the total.

Settlements

The average settlement achieved through PIAB was €22,631 with average legal costs put at just €753, 3 per cent of the total.

However, when it came to litigated settlements, the average compensation was €45,390 with average legal costs put at €23,031, more than 50 per cent of the settlement. The industry has long complained about the cost of payouts made through the courts.

The Minister of State with responsibility for Financial Services and Insurance Michael D’Arcy said the report shows that the insurance and legal sectors are both culpable for the difficulties over the last number of years with the price of motor insurance.

“ It appears that insurers engaged in under-pricing in the early part of this decade and then increased premiums beyond levels that were needed to cover losses over parts of the period, particularly between 2014 and 2017, and are now making significant profits as a result,” he said.

But Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty described the findings as a shocking indictment of the insurance industry, and criticised the Government for peddling the misinformation campaign of the insurance industry.

In its report, the Central Bank said there was an internationally observed underwriting cycle” typically lasting up to 10 years.

“This cycle, with peaks and troughs in premiums, reserves and profitability, is a feature of all insurance markets,” it said.

High profitability tends to attract new entrants into the market or existing entrants to supply more, it said. These competitive pressures have the effect of pushing premiums and profitability down, even pushing firms into loss-making territory.

The Central Bank’s figures show some evidence of this trend in Ireland between 2013 and 2015 with a number of high-profile firms reporting losses.

The report showed claims made up on average 75 per cent of premiums between 2009 and 2018. However, this figure rose to 94 per cent in 2014 before dropping to below 60 per cent in 2017 and 2018, a period that resulted in increased profitability for insurers.

The report did not address the issue of fraud, which insurers have cited as an issue in driving up premiums.

Responding to the findings, Insurance Ireland, the umbrella group for insurers, said the 10 years of motor claims data published today shows personal injury and damage inflation is the main challenge for the sector.

“The 10 years of data shows falling costs for motorists up to 2013 but the industry became loss making and this peaked in 2014,” Insurance Ireland chief executive Gerry Hassett said.

“ The industry was loss making at this time and was impacted by increasing injury and damage claims costs, lower interest rate returns and the disruptive effects of failures like Setanta Insurance,” he said.

“As these trends increased from 2013 onwards, insurers had to provision for the inflation in injury and damage claims evident in the market and settlement times for claims of up to four and a half years,” Mr Hassett said.

irishtimes.com

An investigation by the Charities Regulator into the National University of Ireland Galway’s (NUIG) fundraising charity found spending on luxury 5-star hotels, business class flights and taxi trips from Galway to Dublin were “inconsistent” with value for money policies.

The charities watchdog launched an investigation into spending following concerns raised back in June 2017 over hospitality and travel expenses. Universities have foundations set up to fundraise which are technically separate but closely linked to the university.

The report found over €48,000 had been spent by Galway University Foundation on business class flights between 2015 and 2017. It found on average €385 a night was spent on hotels when they were used with a mix of four and five star hotels used, which was “in excess of Revenue guidelines for overseas travel”.

Hotels booked by the foundation included the five-star Grand Hyatt and the Shangri-La in Singapore, which advertises itself as a “luxurious sanctuary”.

When questioned over the spending on premium travel Dr Jim Browne, who was the NUIG president and foundation director during the period, said “we’re expected to be ready for meetings, being there is important and being tired is not giving our best,” the report said.

“The use of business class travel within the charity appeared to form a substantial percentage of flights taken (30 to 40 per cent of flights taken) by certain individuals”, the report found. The spending on high end hotels and business class flights was “inconsistent with general best practice and value for money considerations,” it said.

The charity spent over €10,000 on ten trips flying directors’ spouses to destinations including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, the majority of which were business class flights.

Some €7,965 of the spending was for flights for Dr Browne’s wife, the report said. The regulator’s inspectors said they found no evidence in the charity’s policies to permit covering spousal travel, and since March the foundation has stopped the practice, the report said.

Galway races
In an interview with the investigators Dr Browne said his wife’s travel was “exceptional” and only took place when required by the charity for “the purpose of building philanthropic relationships”.

The report also found over the three year period more than €30,000 was spent on taxi fares, with “no substantial backup documentation on file” for the purpose of the trips and need to travel by taxi.

Dr Browne travelled in 77 of the 102 taxi trips with most of the journeys being between Dublin and Galway. He told regulator officials his role was a “demanding one” with events often in the evenings followed by early morning meetings elsewhere, the report said.

The former NUIG president said “it was more efficient and safer to avail of a driver than to risk driving when tired”, and taxis were used when he “could not use public transport to meet the requirements of his diary”.

The regulator’s report concluded the “use of charitable monies on a taxi service for long distance travel is generally inconsistent with value for money considerations”.

The report also criticised the lack of effective oversight of spending on “donor acknowledgement,” noting over €61,000 was spent on the Galway races over the three years, and nearly €10,000 on tickets to international Ireland rugby matches.

irishtimes.com