Over the weekend a story came out about ‘Fine Gael probe hunts for leak at center of Bailey compensation case row’.

An internal Fine Gael probe is looking for the source who Ms Bailey has claimed set out to cause “maximum damage”. The Dún Laoghaire TD dropped her lawsuit over a fall from a swing after the Irish Independent revealed she had run a 10km race within three weeks of the incident

.Now it was been alleged that,

‘An investigation ordered by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is probing whether the Herald and Irish Independent became aware of the case through political contacts’.

 It has now emerged that the probe by senior counsel David Kennedy has expanded into trying to uncover the potential source of the story. Ms Bailey has alleged the story was leaked in a “methodical” and “well orchestrated” way that was “pre-planned to cause maximum damage”.

Spinning the story away from the fact Ms Bailey had run a 10km race within three weeks of the incident and claiming she couldn’t participate in activities as her health had been affected.  RTE’s Sean O’Rourke show when questioned about her claims and how she ran a remarkably fast time, Ms Bailey retorted that it “wasn’t fast for her”.

It has been reported in papers that Mr Gilhooly, who is a partner with HJ Ward & Co solicitors.

While Ms Bailey was “unquestionably” entitled to bring her case, it was his opinion based on the information in the public domain that she would have struggled to win it, he said.

“On the facts that we know of, it would have been difficult to succeed,” he said, adding “we only know what was in the newspapers – [the case] wasn’t run in court.”

Categories: Journalism