Judge to decide on injunction blocking suspension of building society manager

A JUDGE will today decide whether to lift an injunction preventing the suspension of an Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) manager who claims he is being scapegoated over loans to solicitors Michael Lynn and Thomas Byrne.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke said he will give judgment today in High Court proceedings brought by Brian Fitzgibbon to stop his suspension and to stop what he says is a disciplinary meeting involving him and to prevent the society from damaging his reputation.

The court yesterday heard INBS were disputing Mr Fitzgibbon’s scapegoat claims and says that it is merely conducting a fact finding enquiry into his conduct, including the approval of nearly €1.25m in bonus payments to branch managers which Mr Fitzgibbon had an involvement in.

The society disputes his claims that the inquiry concerns loans only to Messrs Lynn and Byrne and says there are eight other people to whom loans were given and which are also the subject of the investigation.

The assertions were made in an affidavit by INBS human resources manager, Darragh Horan, who said Mr Fitzgibbon had been suspended because he had aborted a meeting which had been called to discuss various matters concerning his conduct.

Mr Horan rejected Mr Fitzgibbon’s assertions of unfair treatment and said there was no evidence of an attempt to scapegoat him. It was his intention to conduct an “open and fair investigation”.