The High Court is to be asked to strike out the Defence Forces’ defence of a legal action against it by a former technician.
The October 13 hearing has been scheduled because the Defence Forces haven’t complied with a Supreme Court order in 2019 to hand over documents Gavin Tobin has been seeking since 2013.
In May, the Irish Examiner reported how the Defence Forces claimed they could not give a signed affidavit to the former Air Corps technician because of Covid-19 physical distancing rules.
This was despite the fact that Defence Forces lawyers were last ordered to provide the affidavit more than eight months before the first case of the virus was found in Ireland.
A Supreme Court order was made on July 15, 2019 in favour of Mr Tobin, who is suing the State over his alleged exposure to deadly chemicals on dates during the 1990s.
The army was first ordered by the High Court to provide the information to Mr Tobin’s legal team in 2016, after they declined to give him the information when he first asked for it in 2013.
*****
Who would have thought that an arm of the state could simply ignore the highest court in the land with absolute impunity?
The Irish Air Corps are now at the stage of offering “dog ate my homework” excuses while personnel continue to suffer and die needlessly