Final CountyGlen report sought

INQUIRIES are being made as to the whereabouts of the original, signed final report of the inspector into the affairs of CountyGlen, the High Court was told yesterday.

The court is hearing a preliminary issue in the case being taken by CountyGlen against members of the Carway family. The issue is whether the interim and final reports of the inspector, Mr Frank Clarke SC, can be admitted as evidence in the main hearing.

The Chief Registrar of the High Court, Mr John Delahunty, gave evidence of being the court registrar on July 17th, 1994, when the interim report and appendix were presented to Mr Justice Murphy.

He said the judge approved of its contents subject to certain amendments, by way of deletions, and they were received and initialled by him. The document appeared to be signed by Mr Clarke. He added that he sent a full copy to the Minister for Enterprise and Employment.

Another registrar had received the final report in court in October 1994. Mr Delahunty said that he had caused inquiries to be made as to the whereabouts of the final report but had not received the information as yet.

Mr James Connolly SC, for CountyGlen asked Mr Delahunty to hand in the interim report with the parts that had been originally deleted by order of the court.

Miss Justice Laffoy said that the evidence put by Mr Delahunty was the best evidence that Mr Clarke submitted his report to the court. She could not see how there could be better evidence to authenticate it.

She said she was not satisfied about the full report. What was needed was to tie the report, as presented to Mr Justice Murphy and as furnished to the Minister, to the published document. The gap could be filled if a Department official could confirm what he had received and then sent on to the publishers.