Owner fails to get CCTV footage of burnt-out pub

THE Supreme Court has overturned a court order requiring the Garda Commissioner to give a publican security footage taken from his burnt-out Donegal premises and forensic reports related to the premises.

By a two-to-one majority, the Supreme Court allowed the commissioner’s appeal against a High Court decision ordering him to hand over the items to publican Seamus McLaughlin for the purposes of his civil action against his insurer, Aviva, over its failure to pay out under an insurance policy for his premises, destroyed by fire in February 2009.

The commissioner had claimed public interest/executive privilege and investigative privilege over the materials pending a decision by the DPP on a Garda file — sent to the DPP in May 2010 — following an investigation into the fire.