AN article in last weekend's edition of the Sunday Independent about the libel action being taken against the newspaper by the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, led to the discharge of the jury in the case yesterday.
The jury was discharged by Mr Justice McCracken following lengthy submissions by counsel for Mr De Rossa and Independent Newspapers plc about the article, which was written by Mr Gene Kerrigan.
The judge told the jury that he was discharging them because of certain things that had occurred over the weekend.
He will sit today to hear submissions in relation to costs. It is expected that the action itself will be put into the next court list to fix dates.
The next list will be before the court some time next January, and it is considered unlikely that the case could be heard before March as another lengthy case has been specially fixed for February.
Discharging the jury of seven women and five men yesterday - the eighth day of the hearing - Mr Justice McCracken said he was afraid he had to tell them that there had been an unfortunate development in the case because of certain things that had occurred over the weekend.
The judge said he did not think he needed to go into them. It was suggested they might have influenced members of the jury. He felt obliged to withdraw the case from the jury and he was afraid it could not continue.
Mr Justice McCracken said the case was not over and presumably would go on again in front of another jury.
He would say simply that there were certain newspaper articles or' a newspaper article published over the weekend which he felt could have an influence on the jury and should not have been published.
The judge said he was sorry the jury had had eight days in court.
There was little he could do about it.
He would discharge the jury from further service for 10 years automatically, if they wished, because they had been in court totally uselessly for eight days. Mr Justice McCracken said all he could do was to thank them for their attention and apologise for what had happened.
The article by Mr Eamon Dunphy, which it is alleged libelled Mr De Rossa, was published on December 13th, 1992, when attempts were being made to form a coalition government.
Mr De Rossa, who is now leader, of Democratic Left and was formerly leader of the Workers' Party, claimed the Sunday Independent published material which associated his client with truly horrible activities, such as subversion, armed robbery, drugs, prostitution and protection, rackets.
The defence admitted publishing the words, but denied that they were published falsely or maliciously as alleged.
Among those in court when the jury was discharged yesterday were Mr De Rossa and his Dail party colleagues, Ms Liz McManus and Mr Eamon Gilmore. The Sunday Independent editor, Mr Aengus Fanning, and Mr Dunphy were also in court.
The resumption of the hearing yesterday morning was delayed because two jurors were held up by traffic. Mr Justice McCracken adjourned the hearing for 30 minutes. The remainder of the prelunch hearing was taken up with legal argument in the absence of, the jury.
Shortly before 1 p.m the jury was recalled and the judge told them that a matter had come up which the court would be dealing with at 2. 15 p.m. However, in the afternoon, there were further legal submissions in the jury's absence. It was nearly 3.15 pm. when the jury was discharged.
. A spokesman for Mr De Rossa said last night the Minister had no comment to make, as the matter was still before the courts. A spokeswoman for Independent Newspapers also declined to comment.