Newspaper believed destroying documents was ‘proper action’

THE Irish Times destroyed documents relating to an article disclosing that financial payments had been made to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern when he was Finance Minister in 1993 because it believed that was “the proper action” to take, the High Court has been told.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, asked Eoin McGonigal SC, for Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and Public Affairs Correspondent Colm Keena, how his clients could reconcile the destruction of documents with their stated support for the tribunal.

Mr McGonigal said the Irish Times believed that destroying the documents the proper action to preserve the source.