Martin Hayden SC has a broad practice covering areas of Aviation Law, Banking Law, Tax Law, Commercial Law, Employment Law, Public Procurement Law and Competition Law.

He has appeared regularly in the Superior Courts of Ireland and has also presented cases in the European Court of Justice. In addition, he has appeared in Inquiries in Ireland relating to the Mahon Tribunal (Planning abuse), the Moriarty Tribunal (investigation in relation to the sale of mobile telephone licences) and in relation to both the Finlay and Lindsay Tribunals into the Irish Blood Transfusion Service Board concerning contamination of Irish haemophiliacs with Hepatitis C and HIV (in both latter Tribunals, he acted on behalf of the Irish Haemophilia Society as lead Counsel).

Martin Hayden has a detailed and specialist knowledge of e-contracts in the context of the Aviation industry and regularly acts for the largest airline in Europe.

Key cases

Cantrell v Allied Irish Banks PLC & Ors Unreported, Court of Appeal, 18th July 2019 – Martin Hayden SC represented AIB on appeal to the Irish Court of Appeal and was successful in having a class action claim dismissed against the Bank for in excess of €50m.

Ryanair v Fórsa Unreported, High Court, 21st August 2019 – Martin Hayden SC successfully obtained an injunction on behalf of Ryanair prohibiting the Irish trade union, Fórsa, which represents pilots, from organising, directing, sanctioning or endorsing the participation of its membership in a strike on 22 or 23 August 2019. Fórsa was also prohibited from directly or indirectly adopting or relying upon or otherwise giving effect to any purported notice of industrial action in respect of those dates.

Michael O’ Sullivan v Canada Life Assurance Ireland Limited [2014] IEHC 217 Martin acted as lead Counsel on behalf of Michael O’Sullivan, the Plaintiff, who brought a challenge against Canada Life whereby the latter refused to transfer his pension fund within the EU to Malta.

Sherborough Securities Limited & Others v An Bord Plenala and Coras Iompar Eireann – Martin acted as lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs against the Irish Planning Authority and Transport Company, CIE relating to the compulsory acquisition of land for the purposes of constructing an underground railway system in Dublin. It related to the challenge by way of judicial review to what were known as Railway Orders obtained for the purposes of the DART Underground Electrified Heavy Railway Order 2011 and in particular a challenge to the seven year period permitted to CIE to exercise its entitlement.

CLM Properties Limited –v- Greenstar Holdings, KTK Landfill Limited and the Governor & Company of the Bank of Ireland and David Carson [2014] IEHC 178 – Martin acted on behalf of CLM Properties Limited together with parallel proceedings brought by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency against the same parties relating to the collapse of the Greenstar waste operation. The matter directly in issue relates to the obligations under the Waste Directive and licensing conditions in relation to maintenance and remediation of landfill sites. This case relates to the ringfencing of funds collected by waste operators and whether and to what extent Bank charges rank in priority to any funds collected which were originally sourced for the purposes of providing a fund under a waste licence to remediate landfill sites. Whilst CLM has been unsuccessful at first instance before the Irish High Court, the matter is now before the Supreme Court with a request for a reference to Luxembourg.

Further information