The Plaintiff was a Civil Servant employed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. On the 22nd of October 2015, the Plaintiff left the premises in Celbridge where she works. There was no light from the waist-high lights that lead from the office premises to the nearby car park, nor were any of the standard streetlights lighted. The whole area was in pitch darkness. The Plaintiff proceeded towards her car and just before she got to the car she trod on something which she believed to be leaves and fell backwards. She got up in pain, made it to her car and sat in the car for some time, crying and in shock.

It subsequently turned out