Irish Examiner defamation case: Mick Clifford tells court he based articles about Planning Institute on EY report

Former IPI executive director Orla Purcell claims that allegations about her in EY report were presented as fact in the two articles, and that they damaged her reputation

Irish Examiner editor John O'Mahony and journalist Mick Clifford leaving the Four Courts on Tuesday's hearing in the defamation case brought by former IPI executive director Orla Purcell. Picture: Collins Courts

A senior Irish Examiner journalist has said the basis for two news articles he wrote about the Irish Planning Institute had been details contained in a confidential report compiled by a major consultancy firm.

Mick Clifford told a High Court defamation action that he had written the two pieces after hearing “on the grapevine” that there were issues within the institute — the representative body for planners in Ireland — and after coming into possession of the confidential report, compiled by EY, which had been commissioned to investigate certain matters which had arisen at the IPI.