Dean Hotel owners dispute aspects of Maria Bailey’s media interviews

The hotel and hospitality group against whom Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey abandoned a legal claim at the weekend is understood to dispute her version of events.

The Press Up Entertainment Group said out of respect for the judicial system, it would not provide a detailed statement until it has received a notice of discontinuation of the legal action. It had not received such notice from Ms Bailey’s legal team during business hours yesterday.

However, it is understood that the company, which owns the Dean Hotel, disputes aspects of interviews she has given in recent days to the Sunday Independent and RTÉ Radio.

In an interview on the Seán O’Rourke programme on RTÉ yesterday morning, the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown TD said she was not seeking damages from the hotel group – which denies any liability for the incident – and was only seeking to have her medical expenses recouped.

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“I was injured, I am the one who suffered an injury. I never claimed for compensation. The hotel agreed to pay my medical expenses. I ended up in A&E the next morning. Nobody else got hurt here except me.”

Recounting the incident, Ms Bailey said when she sat on the swing, “I had my beer in my hand, and then I was reaching for my friend’s, I had a bottle of wine. She was taking her camera out of her jacket. I then found myself on the floor. I was mortified.”

Asked if she had a bottle in each hand while on the swing, Ms Bailey did not clarify. Ms Bailey said she had fallen, had been “mortified” and asked hotel reception for plasters for “cuts and grazes”. The hotel staff had been “very respectful”.

She became aware the story was going to emerge when she received a telephone call from a journalist asking for a comment, she said.

‘Clickbait’

Ms Bailey said she had been the subject of “clickbait” and had been advised early last week not to withdraw the case as it would appear cynical on the week of the local elections. Elections are a very emotive time, she said, and the election was not lost in the last week. There had been no pressure from Fine Gael for her to withdraw the case, she added. “This is a private matter; it happened a long time ago.”

She also said the disclosure of her case had been methodically pre-planned to “cause the maximum damage”. And in the past week she had been subjected to “unbelievable abuse” and could not go home for three days because there were journalists outside her house.

The media had been “judge, jury and executioner” of the leaked documents, Ms Bailey claimed.

It emerged last week that Ms Bailey had run a 10km race in the weeks following the incident, despite including in court documents that she had been unable to do any running for three months. Speaking on RTÉ yesterday, she said the three-month period in her claim is “wrong”. “The plaintiff has every right to amend those particulars prior to it going before a judge,” she said.

Ms Bailey declined to be drawn on the reasons she believed the hotel was negligent, saying “that would have been for a judge to adjudicate on”.

“I’m not a legal person,” she added. “I took legal advice on this and I put every faith into that legal system and I was told I had a clear-cut case.”

Ms Bailey was represented by solicitor firm Madigans, where Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan practised until 2017.

Ms Madigan has refused to be drawn on whether she advised her Fine Gael colleague on the matter. Asked whether she was advised by Ms Madigan, Ms Bailey said: “I don’t see any reason in answering a question like that. That has nothing to do with this now. This case is gone; this case is dropped.”

McDowell remarks

She criticised politicians who had commented on her legal case, including former minister for justice and attorney general Michael McDowell. “This is Michael McDowell being ridiculous. This case was a live case, he was being sub-judice, and he should have known better.”

Mr McDowell told The Irish Times he “reject[ed] the suggestion that the sub-judice rule has any application to my remarks, and I was careful to point out that the newspaper report only contained part of the evidence.

“I have been speaking in the Seanad on a number of occasions about escalating costs and the effect on groups such as taxi drivers, day centres and special schools. I merely observed in a light-hearted way that such a case put a question mark over the commitment of the Government controlling the compensation culture.”

Ms Bailey said all she was seeking from the hotel was €7,000 in legal expenses. Legal sources said in almost all cases, actions listed for the Circuit Court – where Ms Bailey’s was taking place – relate to amounts of more than €15,000.

In the wake of the case, a Government source said reform of the insurance sector is likely to be accelerated, including by the support of private members’ Bills introduced by the Opposition.

Minister of State for Finance Michael D’Arcy is likely to introduce amendments to a Bill introduced by Sinn Féin that will limit the amount insurance companies can hold back from claimants until work is completed, known as retention payments. Companies are also likely to be forced to divulge to customers more details about the details of claims paid out following an accident when the consumer’s policy is invoked.