A judge has approved a €25,000 personal injuries settlement for a 21-month-old child who fell because of a depression or hole in the yard outside his home.
Martin McDonagh, who is now five, broke his left elbow when he fell, Judge Pauline Codd was told in the Circuit Civil Court on Tuesday.
Dublin City Council, which is halting site landlord to the McDonagh family had entered a defence in which it alleged lack of supervision as having been responsible for Martin’s injuries.
The council claimed it maintained a reasonable system of inspection at St Margaret’s Park Halting Site, Ballymun, and had not been negligent or responsible for the child’s fall.
Barrister Thomas Clarke, who appeared with Spelman Callaghan Solicitors for Martin and his mother, Louise McDonagh, told Judge Codd that the local authority had made a settlement offer of €25,000 to the boy and he was recommending the court approve it.
It was claimed the boy had lost his footing and had fallen due to a hole or depression on the surface of the yard in the halting site.
Mr Clarke said that following the November 2017 incident Martin had been taken to the Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin, where a displaced fracture of his left elbow had been fixed under anaesthesia by the insertion of K-Wires which shortly afterwards had to be removed again under anaesthesia.
He told Judge Codd, who approved the settlement with costs, that Martin had made a full recovery but had been left with a scar of just under two inches, consistent with the surgical procedure.