The primary issue before the Court was considering whether the amendment of order 31 rule 12 of the Rules of the Superior Courts impacted the current laws of discovery greatly or not. Aer Rianta maintained the argument that Ryanair had failed to comply with the requirements of order 31 rule 12. Moreover the requests for discovery were too vague. In particular, Aer Rianta relied strongly on the judgement of Morris P. in Swords v Western Proteins Ltd.Swords v Western Proteins Ltd [2001] 1 ILRM 481, [2000] IEHC 204 They said that following this decision "it was necessary for a party seeking discovery to specify the document or documents sought with precision and also to give such reasons as would demonstrate that their discovery was necessary". Ryanair argued that while "a procedural change had been effected, this did not change the basic law concerning discovery". Aer Rianta went on to argue that following the amendment of order 31 rule 12, discovery was now more difficult to obtain and that Ryanair had "other means of establishing most of the relevant facts". Ryanair submitted that the amendment to order 31 rule 12 introduced the requirement of a "preliminary request for voluntary discovery" and of a verifying affidavit. The effect was "to eliminate the right to obtain an order for general discovery or to obtain any discovery without a grounding affidavit".
