A former editor of the Evening Herald has told the High Court he understood he had been given approval by editorial executives to enter, on the appointment of journalist Mairead Carey as political correspondent, into an arrangement where she could work from home early in the day as she had a very young child.
Mr Paul Drury said the "slightly unusual" arrangement was that Ms Carey could work from home from 7 a.m. until first edition time, about 10 a.m. Ms Carey was also to work five shifts a week.
He was giving evidence on the second day of an action by Ms Carey against Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd for alleged breach of contract and/or wrongful dismissal. She had worked with the Evening Herald for some six months.
She claims her conditions of employment were that she would work from her home from 7 a.m. until the first-edition deadline and afterwards work from the Dáil for the remainder of the day.
However, Ms Carey claims that, shortly after she took up the position, having left her post as political correspondent with Ireland on Sunday, she was asked go into the Herald offices in the early morning rather than work from home. Ms Carey says she could not get a childminder at such an early hour.
The company denies it wrongfully terminated Ms Carey's contract of employment summarily on April 17th, 2000.
Yesterday, Mr Drury, whose employment with the Evening Herald was terminated just after Ms Carey joined the newspaper, said he had approached her informally to see if she would be interested in the Evening Herald job.
The difficulties about her early-morning working arrangements were discussed and he said he would have to have discussions with Mr Michael Roche, managing editor, and Mr Paul Dunne, group news editor. Ms Carey suggested a salary which was more than he was in a position to offer and he said he would discuss that with editorial executives.
Mr Drury said he felt the Evening Herald news editor, Mr Martin Brennan, might not be as happy with the arrangement about Ms Carey working from home early on as Mr Drury was.
As far as Mr Drury was concerned, he was entering a binding agreement with Ms Carey in his capacity as the editor of the newspaper and not on a personal basis.
Cross-examined by Mr Brian O'Moore SC, for the defence, Ms Carey agreed the Evening Herald job was more prestigious than the position at Ireland on Sunday.