Tribunal rejects appeal against SouthDoc ruling

An employment appeals tribunal that ruled in favour of allowing some witnesses give evidence in camera in a case involving SouthDoc has rejected an attempt by the Irish Examiner to reverse that ruling.

Yesterday, the newspaper’s barrister, Eoin Clifford, argued that the decision to hold part of the hearing in camera could potentially “open the floodgates for every redundancy case coming in here [before the tribunal] to be heard in camera”.

“It’s a very, arguably, dangerous precedent,” Mr Clifford said, and was the reason the Irish Examiner had tried to have the ruling reversed.

On Wednesday, the tribunal ruled in favour of an application by lawyers for SouthDoc to have three of its witnesses heard in camera. They were: General manager Máire Hussey, auditor Marcus Treacy, and HSE official Dónal Murphy.

Deirdre Crowley, for SouthDoc, made the application on the basis that previous newspaper coverage of the case, where details of the company’s financial status were outlined, had a negative impact, creating operational difficulties, and staff and patient confidence issues.

Ms Crowley said Ms Hussey, Mr Treacy, and Mr Murphy did not feel they could “speak freely on the record” and that some of their evidence was “commercially sensitive”, including a pending funding cut of up to 10%, “the precise nature” of which had not yet been communicated to SouthDoc.

The appeal hearing, which relates to a pay claim made by employees of SouthDoc, will resume next March.