Defamation action against Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave struck out

Deputy master of the High Court dismissed the case as plaintiff Robert Quirke had not responded to attempts to contact him for over a year

The defamation action against Paddy Cosgrave, taken by a businessman in dispute with the HSE over €10.3m worth of covid ventilators, has been struck out. File picture: Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP

A defamation action against Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave, taken by a businessman in dispute with the HSE over €10.3m worth of covid ventilators, has been struck out.

The action, first lodged in April 2021, was dismissed by the deputy master of the High Court, John Glennon, as plaintiff Robert Quirke had not responded to attempts to contact him for over a year.

Mr Quirke came to prominence during the covid pandemic when his company Roqu Media International — which had previously been involved in running music festivals in the Middle East and eastern Europe — received €14.1m from the HSE to procure 328 ventilators from China.

However, just 72 ventilators were ever received and the devices subsequently failed to pass the quality standards required for clinical deployment and were never used.

Roqu has been in dispute with the HSE over €10.3m paid to the company since May 2020.

Mr Quirke had taken the defamation action against Mr Cosgrave on the foot of a tweet posted by the Web Summit CEO in March 2021, which alleged that Mr Quirke had spent “taxpayer cash on super cars” and then “fled” the country.

Mr Quirke said the post was clearly calculated to damage his reputation.

However, in November 2023, Mr Quirke’s lawyers Augustus Cullen came off record — that is removed themselves as his legal counsel — as they were unable to contact him.

No solicitor had come on record for the plaintiff in the intervening 14 months.

While costs in the action were awarded at that time to Mr Cosgrave, he elected to proceed with motion for discovery involved in the case.

Dismissing an action due to a plaintiff being uncontactable is a highly unusual event in the courts.

Counsel for Mr Cosgrave outlined that repeated attempts had been made to contact Mr Quirke at four separate addresses, two in Ireland and two abroad, but to no avail. Mr Quirke is now liable for the costs incurred by Mr Cosgrave in the action, believed to be in the region of €60,000.