Magnier case: Row breaks out in court over claims gallery members tried to communicate with witness
John Magnier
over a failed property deal for a Co Tipperary estate.
On Thursday, the defence claimed a member, or members, of the public gallery were attempting to communicate with a witness under cross-examination by nodding to him on certain answers.
The case centres on Mr Magnier's claim that a US-based construction magnate, Maurice Regan, the preferred buyer, engaged in a 'full-frontal assault' on Mr Magnier's claimed deal to buy the 751-acre estate.
Coolmore Stud founder Mr Magnier claims Barne Estate reneged on the alleged deal, preferring to sell at the higher price of €22.25 million to Mr Regan, founder of New York building firm JT Magen.
READ MORE
The Magniers say the deal was struck at Mr Magnier's Coolmore home on August 22nd, 2023.
They also claim an exclusivity agreement in effect from August 31st to September 30th stipulated the estate would not permit its representatives to solicit or encourage any expression of interest, inquiry or offer on the property from anyone other than Mr Magnier.
Barne Estate has been held for the benefit of Richard Thomson-Moore and others by a Jersey trust. The Magnier side has sued the Barne Estate, Mr Thomson-Moore and three companies of IQEQ (Jersey) Ltd group, seeking to enforce the purported deal, which they say had been 'unequivocally' agreed.
Barne says there was never any such agreement as they needed the consent of the trustees to finalise any agreement and they subsequently preferred to sell to Mr Regan.
Mr Regan is not a party to the case.
The nodding in court claim was made on Thursday by Martin Hayden SC, for Barne Estate, while his colleague Niall F Buckley SC, was conducting the cross-examination of a financial manager at Coolmore, Tim Gleeson.
Mr Gleeson was giving evidence on communications timelines, statements and meetings surrounding the failed deal.
Mr Hayden apologised for interrupting the cross-examination and claimed that he had been informed by a note from his legal team that a member or members of the gallery had been nodding at the witness.
Mr Hayden gestured towards the Magnier side and told Mr Justice Max Barrett that he was asking individuals 'on the Coolmore side to stop making head gestures' in relation to questions asked of Mr Gleeson.
'It has happened on four occasions now in relation to particular questions asked and head gestures are being made by certain individuals in the gallery,' said Mr Hayden.
Mr Gleeson said he did not see any gestures and that he was following documents from the witness box and facing the judge when answering questions over his witness statement.
Paul Gallagher SC, for the Coolmore side, said he did not accept the assertion made by Mr Hayden.
About 10 minutes later, Mr Hayden rose again to tell the judge 'it is occurring again'.
'They are giving indications of what the answers should be – that's unacceptable'.
Mr Gallagher said it was 'an outrageous statement to make – it's not true'.
'I know Mr Gallagher is all-powerful but I don't think he has eyes in the back of his head, I'm not sure he can see what is going on,' said Mr Hayden.
Mr Justice Barrett asked all present to refrain from any nodding upon hearing responses given by the witness.
Moments later, Mr Gallagher said a member of the defence's legal team was now staring at the gallery where the Coolmore side were sitting at the rear of the court, which he considered 'highly inappropriate'.
Mr Hayden said it was appropriate the defence made sure the claimed behaviour did not happen again.
Jerome Casey, a senior member of staff at Coolmore who fronts property deals for Mr Magnier, told Caren Geoghegan SC, for the Magniers, 'we are honourable people' who would not go back on an agreed deal.
Mr Casey said the exclusivity agreement was put in place because contracts for the estate had not been issued immediately to Coolmore by the vendors' solicitors and that by late August he was made aware that Mr Regan was 'not happy' about the purported sale of the land to the Magniers.
Mr Hayden asked Mr Casey if the main reason for the exclusivity agreement was Mr Regan's interest and was told 'very much so'.
The case continues before Mr Justice Barrett.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘This war took my entire life from me': Thousands attend pro-Palestine march in Dublin
Tens of thousands of people marched through Dublin city centre on Saturday afternoon calling for the Central Bank of Ireland to 'stop funding genocide' through the facilitation of the sale of Israeli bonds. Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon told protesters he would be taking a legal case against the Central Bank over the issue and would lodge papers next week. The Dublin Central TD has previously written to the bank's governor , Gabriel Makhlouf, claiming that investors in Israeli bonds approved by the Irish Central Bank risk being legally complicit in genocide in Gaza . The bank is the designated authority in relation to the sale of Israeli bonds in the EU, and has determined the securities meet the standards of the bloc's prospectus regulations. READ MORE Protesters leading the demonstration carried a giant sphere in the style of the logo of Ireland's Central Bank with the words 'stop funding genocide' painted on it. Photograph: Ella Sloane Saturday marked the sixteenth national demonstration of its kind since October 2023, with organisers estimating more than 70,000 in attendance. Protesters draped in Palestinian flags and keffiyehs arrived in droves at the Garden of Remembrance before marching to Leinster House. The demonstration was organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) and was backed by more than 170 organisations, according to the IPSC. The group called for the Government to enact sanctions against Israel and to fully enact the Occupied Territories Bill. The Government has committed to implementing the Bill, which would ban trade in goods with the occupied Palestinian territories, and it is due before the Dáil in autumn. Protesters on Saturday called on the Government to include a ban on trade in services in the Bill. Photograph: Ella Sloane They also called for the cessation of use of Irish airspace for transporting weapons. Traffic was brought to a standstill as the march travelled down O'Connell Street, through College Green and up Dawson Street. At a rally outside the Dáil, which filled the length of Molesworth Street, Marah Nijim, a 23-year-old student from Gaza told how her brother had recently been hospitalised due to starvation. 'It's kind of heavy for me to talk now because I just got the news that my brother is in hospital because of a lack of food and because of the starvation,' she said. 'I'm here to speak about my home, the one that I was forced to leave without any clothes, without anything but what I was wearing.' 'This war took away from me my entire life,' she told the crowds who had gathered outside Leinster House. Mr Gannon told the crowd about his legal case against the Central Bank of Ireland. He said he would keep his speech brief because 'politicians have done too much talking and we haven't done enough in terms of acting, legislating and sanction'. 'The case is moral. A genocide is happening. We are obligated to prevent it. So I will take it as far as it needs to go. We are lodging papers on Tuesday,' he said. IPSC chairperson Zoe Lawlor described it as 'shameful' that the Government 'lets the US military use Shannon Airport' to transport Israeli weapons. 'Israel does not commit this genocide alone. It does so with the weapons, the money and the political cover it gets from the US and the EU,' she told the crowd. . Ms Lawlor condemned the Government, saying 'their actions do not match their words'. She spoke about the refusal of visas for 33 young GAA players from Palestine who had planned to tour Ireland. 'They have delayed the visas of the Lajee dancers and football team. They are blocking the students in Gaza who already have been accepted to Irish universities,' she said. During a break in the speeches, Galway singer Declan O'Rourke performed World on Fire, which he dedicated to 'the people of Palestine'. Other speakers at the rally included: Mohamed Migdad, an economics lecturer from Gaza; Dunnes Stores striker Mary Manning; Bernard Joyce, director of the Irish Traveller Movement; and Conor O'Neill of the Pass the Occupied Territories Bill Campaign.
Irish Times
17 hours ago
- Irish Times
The housing data is stark: we need to increase supply or reduce demand
One of the golden rules of economics is you can't manage what you can't measure. Managing a problem will be easier using hard evidence, backed by accurate data. It is a business school version of the expression, 'the numbers don't lie'. In contrast, trying to solve real-world problems with ideology, preordained positions, emotions or other iterations of blurry thinking leads to disaster. Only data can reveal the true picture; everything else is just noise and sloganeering, possibly interesting to debate but never the basis for practical, workable policy. Take the biggest issue facing Ireland right now – the housing market. With data and the right model of what drives house prices in real life, we can set policy that is likely to succeed. If the Government really wants to stabilise house prices, it needs to make this an explicit policy objective, and reorientate all other policies around it. Everything should be measured against the benchmark of whether it will lead to stable prices. All other objectives should be subservient to achieving stable house prices for the foreseeable future. For example, if expanding GDP, the tax base or inward investment are measures that compromise the objective of achieving stable house prices, they should be altered to be consistent with the key goal. Basic economics tells us that prices will settle down when supply equals demand. The problem in Ireland is that supply has fallen way below demand for many years, particularly in the past decade. Up until recently, most Government initiatives have been focused on boosting supply rather than limiting demand. The problem with this approach is the data tells us we are stuck with a construction sector that can't build any more than around 35,000 new homes a year. Maybe over time this figure might creep up, but at the moment Ireland has a hard constraint of 35,000 homes a year or thereabouts. So that's the maximum supply at the moment. READ MORE Adjusting the demand for housing downwards to meet this supply would help to stabilise the market. So what drives the demand for housing in Ireland? There are four essential variables driving the housing demand: the natural increase in the population; the average size of an Irish household; the amount of existing housing stock that is old and must be demolished every year; and immigration. Immigration is the only variable that the Government has any material control over. Reduce immigration and housing demand falls, easing the upward pressure on prices, given that we can't build more than around 35,000 houses a year. It is pretty straightforward. Other economic targets – such as expanding GDP, garnering more foreign investment, maintaining the health service by employing immigrants to keep the system afloat or increasing profitability in the economy – might suffer, but if the objective of stabilising house prices is paramount, everything else comes second. [ Ireland needs immigrants. But our economy can't accommodate an infinite number Opens in new window ] Let's look at the data in a bit more detail. An overlooked factor critical to assessing the amount of homes we need for the population is the size of Irish families. When I was a kid, most families on our street had between three and five children, which meant that one house contained possibly seven or more people. We now have 2.5 people on average per household – still the highest in the EU, but falling. Simply put, we need more houses to accommodate families because fewer of us are living in each home. Therefore, to get the amount of new houses we need for the population we must divide any population increases by 2.5. Now let's examine the natural increase which is annual births minus deaths. More babies, more future homes needed. This figure last year was 20,000 – around 55,000 births, versus 35,000 deaths. This 20,000 divided by 2.5 implies 8,000 new homes just to satisfy the natural increase in the State's population. [ The people behind the numbers as Ireland's population grows by nearly a third in 20 years Opens in new window ] A third factor affecting supply is obsolescence, which is basically the number of houses that must be built to replace the decaying old stock. About 150,000 Irish households live in buildings that are over 100 years old, mainly in rural areas. There are around 2.1 million houses in Ireland, therefore an obsolescence rate of 0.5 per cent, which adds up to an additional 10,000 units annually. If you want to be conservative, we'll put this somewhere in the 5,000 – 10,000 range, so let's settle at 7,500. So before we talk about immigration, taking in these three factors above, we need about 15,000 new houses per year just to stand still. How many homes do you think were built in all of last year in Ireland? It was 30,330. This means we have about 15,000 spare new homes for the people who want to come and live here. The data tells us that, in the 12 months to the end of April 2024 , 149,200 people came to Ireland and more than 69,000 left, meaning a net immigration figure of around80,000. Of the more than 140,000 people who came into the country, about 62,400 are either Irish or EU and UK citizens, leaving around 75,000 coming here on work or study visas, or as asylum seekers. These are the only people that the State can refuse entry to. (Although, for example, visa requirements for Ukrainians travelling to Ireland were waived as an emergency measure.) Going back to our model of the housing market, we can see that when the State is building only 30,000 homes a year, we have 15,000 left after the natural increase and obsolescence are taken into account. At an average house size of 2.5, the implication is that to keep house prices stable and keep supply and demand in line, the maximum number of immigrants the Irish housing market can sustain is between 30,000 to 40,000 tops. This figure is a long, long way from the figure for non-EU immigrants who were given work or study visas or asylum last year, let alone the migrants who came from the EU or returning Irish citizens. [ Ireland's dissatisfied voters are moving, but not towards the left Opens in new window ] Now that we have measured, who is going to manage? The data cannot be emoted away. Ireland has a capacity problem. This is not the fault of immigrants who are given visas, but without a rapidly expanding supply of houses, the number of newcomers means prices can't stabilise. The most sensible policy would be to accelerate supply and decelerate demand, increase home building and decrease immigration. The numbers are stark. We can debate, moralise and criticise all we like but the honest conclusion must be that if we want stable, affordable house prices, an honest discussion on population, underpinned by data not emotion, is the only sensible way forward from here.
Irish Times
17 hours ago
- Irish Times
No agreement yet on how proceeds of Apple tax case will be spent
The Taoiseach and Tánaiste are to hold talks on Saturday in an attempt to break the deadlock on how €20 billion in funding for key projects will be spent over the coming years. No agreement had been reached on Friday on spending in five key areas – housing, health, transport, education and defence. Informed sources said nine departments had agreed their funding levels, including justice and energy. Under the €20 billion revised National Development Plan (NDP), to be published on Tuesday, significant additional investment in areas such as housing, water infrastructure, the electricity grid, roads and public transport will be announced. The funding includes proceeds from the Apple tax case. READ MORE There is also expected to be a boost to capital funding in the disability sector, which Taoiseach Micheál Martin said would be a priority area for his Government. However, the amounts sought by Ministers under the revised NDP were multiples of the funding available. It is unusual for defence spending to be a sticking point in such Government negotiations over budgets, given the low levels of expenditure traditionally in this area. However, it is understood that Tánaiste Simon Harris, as Minister for Defence, has sought significant change in how the area is treated by the exchequer. He has said publicly that Ireland needs to boost defence spending and has spoken of moving to a higher level of defence capabilities – based on the findings of the Commission on Defence – including a larger Naval Service and the provision of fighter jets for the Air Corps. [ Focus in Budget 2026 has to be on transforming infrastructure, Martin says Opens in new window ] Sources said there were still issues remaining about funding for new roads. The Department of Transport had, for example, previously advised Ministers that there was a lack of clarity about where money for some projects such as the A5 dual carriageway in Northern Ireland – to which the previous government had committed €600 million – would come from. It was anticipated that this issue would be resolved in talks on the revised NDP. The Government's new housing strategy cannot be completed until the scale of funding available under the plan is known. Funding for key water infrastructure such as the new Dublin drainage scheme and the pipeline to bring water from the Shannon to Dublin is understood to form part of the Department of Housing's proposals, as does the €2 billion scheme to deal with the impact of defective concrete blocks. Sources said the plan would see the largest investment in the electricity grid in Irish history. Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is understood to be pressing for funding for digitalisation of health services including electronic patient records – a project that could cost about €2 billion – as well as new elective hospitals to deal with non-urgent care and more community nursing units. [ Government 'feckless' with public money, Social Democrats claim in budget row Opens in new window ] The Cabinet is scheduled to formally sign off on the revised NDP on Tuesday. However, this is expected to involve only the provision of specific budgets to each department. It is not anticipated that particular projects to be funded will be announced on Tuesday. It will be up to Minsters in each area to decide on individual projects based on the level of funding they have available. Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers told the Dáil on Thursday that at a point of significant economic uncertainty, the Government was 'clearly setting out that we want to seriously increase our overall investment in critical infrastructure, which will provide the growth, prosperity and jobs for the future'. 'We know that housing, energy, water and transport in particular are areas requiring that additional investment,' he said. 'There are other areas that require the additionality to provide for critical services and social infrastructure across communities in Ireland.'
