An insurance company has secured a High Court injunction preventing a former employee from using or distributing any confidential information relating to the firm.

The order was granted in favour of Aon Ireland Limited against Luciana Bernardes De Castro, who the court heard had worked as a Claims Administrator for the company between March 2020 until January 2022 when she allegedly resigned from her job.

The court heard that Ms De Castro made a claim to the Workplace Relations Committee against Aon Ireland, which is a subsidiary of the Aon Plc, in August 2022.

Arising out of her claim, Aon conducted a targeted ….read more

Twitter has told the High Court that it has restored Irish senior executive Sinead McSweeney to her position with the company.

Last week Ms McSweeney, who is Twitter’s Global Vice President for Public Policy, secured a temporary High Court injunction preventing the social networking giant from terminating her employment.

She claimed that by not responding to a generic and vague e-mail sent earlier this month to all of Twitter employees by its new owner, multi–Billionaire Elon Musk, she was treated as if she was no longer employed by the company.

Ms McSweeney said that she never resigned from her job but had been ….read more

A data centre that has been given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanala will require 180 megawatts of electricity per year and will generate an estimated 1% of Ireland’s total annual carbon dioxide emissions, it has been claimed before the High Court.

A father and daughter claim that the decision to allow the data centre be built near their Co Meath home has breached several Constitutional rights, including their right to a healthy environment.

Those claims, which are denied by the State and the board, form part of an action that raises important points of domestic and EU law that ….read more

The High Court has appointed joint provisional liquidators to a firm based in Ireland that is part of a group of companies which provides mechanical and electrical services to wind turbine manufacturers.

The appointments were made in respect of Windhoist Ireland Limited, which had been working on a wind farm project currently under construction at Ardderroo, near Moycullen in Co Galway.

The firm has 17 employees in Ireland.

The court heard that the wind-up order was being sought because the company’s Scottish-based parent Windhoist, which is part of Windlogix Group, was entering administration in that jurisdiction and can no longer provide funds ….read more

(Pictured: Mr Paddy Cosgrave. Photo: Collins)

A judge has ruled that no order for costs should be made against Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave, who is being sued for defamation by businessman Robert Quirke over a tweet posted on Mr Cosgrave’s Twitter account in 2021, after a pretrial motion launched by Mr Quirke.

Mr Cosgrave was instead awarded all of his costs with regard to the motion, as well as the costs for Monday’s hearing.

Mr Quirke is the CEO of Roqu Group, which has diverse interests in areas including media management and the organisation of festivals, and says he was identified ….read more

The High Court has approved a Personal Insolvency Arrangement allowing a former property developer write-off approximately €170m in debt owed to parties including NAMA and various financial institutions.

The PIA was made in favour of 55-year-old Barry Harte, from Chapel Timoleague, Bandon Co Cork, who is to provide a total of €80,000 to his creditors.

The plaintiff established Harte Holdings approximately 20 years ago, a company which specialised in property investment and development in the hospitality and residential sectors in several jurisdictions, particularly Ireland and London.

The business was fuelled by loans from banks and private investors during the Celtic Tiger era ….read more

(File Picture: Ms Sinead McSweeney. Photo: Collins)

An Irish senior executive with Twitter has secured a temporary High Court injunction preventing the social networking giant from terminating her employment.

The order was secured by Sinead McSweeney, who is Twitter’s Global Vice President for Public Policy.

Ms McSweeney claims that by not responding to a generic and vague e-mail sent earlier this month to all Twitter employees by its owner, multi–Billionaire Elon Musk, she has been treated as if she is no longer employed by the company.

She claims that while the company informed her that she had accepted an exit package, Ms McSweeney says ….read more

(Picture: Chivista, Wikimedia Commons)

Two-time European Cup winners Benfica have secured a High Court order directing Twitter to reveal the identity of those behind an account that has posted allegedly defamatory information about the storied Portuguese football club.

The orders granted to the club require that the social media giant, now owned by multi-billionaire Elon Musk, disclose the identity of the person or persons behind the “@o_tal_pulha” account, which it says has posted defamatory material about the club.

Benfica claims the account posted defamatory comments including allegations of financial and other impropriety against it.

Previously, the court was told the football club believes “o_tal_pulha” ….read more

An Irish man who was jailed in Sweden for his role in a €4.7m income tax fraud is now wanted for absconding from the country with almost two years of his jail time yet to be served, the High Court heard today.

John O’Connor (40) from Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, and his brothers were convicted of tax and VAT fraud and money laundering in Stockholm in March of last year. He was also convicted of three counts of “gross accounting offences”.

O’Connor and three of his brothers, Edward (27), Mark (30) and James (28) were all sentenced to three years and eight months’ ….read more

Two couples have brought High Court damages actions over what they claim is the nuisance and excessive noise being generated by windfarm located near their Co Wexford homes.

The actions have been brought by Margaret Webster and her partner Keith Rollo, as well as Ross Shorten and Joan Carty against Meenacloghspar (Wind) Limited, which operates the two turbines at the Ballyduff Windfarm at Kilcomb, near Enniscorthy in Co Wexford.

The plaintiffs both have properties close to the windfarm, which has been in operation since 2017.

The allege that since that date, they have been subjected to constant noise and nuisance which had damaged ….read more