The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by businessman Denis O'Brien against a High Court order allowing the Moriarty tribunal to hold public hearings into the 1998 purchase of Doncaster Rovers Football Club by a company controlled by an O'Brien family trust and the purported connection of former minister Michael Lowry to that purchase.
In a majority decision, four of the five Supreme Court judges dismissed the challenge by Mr O'Brien against a High Court decision last October that the tribunal could go ahead with public hearings.
Ms Justice Susan Denham, in a judgment which was agreed with by the Chief Justice John Murray, Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan and Mr Justice Niall Fennelly, said the purpose of the Tribunal's inquiries was to restore public confidence in our democratic institutions.
The Tribunal has to consider whether various property transactions, i.e. Doncaster, Cheadle and Mansfield, and the related financial transactions , were intended as a substitution for a payment of £147,000 to Michael Lowry which was reversed on the day of the establishment of the McCracken tribunal and whether these transactions were part of a train of transactions related to the conferral of benefit on Michael Lowry.
Ms Justice Denham said she was satisfied the High Court was correct in refusing to prevent the tribunal moving to public hearings. "While there are a series of stages in an inquiry, the core function of a tribunal is to dispel public disquiet."
"Thus the public hearings are a critical aspect of the process. It is quintessentially a matter for the Tribunal to determine the matters to proceed to public hearing."
"This Tribunal is continuing to carry out an inquiry critical to preserve the purity and integrity of our public life. The Tribunal is inquiring to see if the specified evils exist - so that if they do they may be rooted out. Of equal importance, it if be found that evil does not exist, the Tribunal may so report so that..the public may be satisfied that in reality there is not substance to prevalent rumours and suspicions. Either conclusion is important to public life."
The High Court was told last year that Doncaster was purchased for some €4.3 million in August 1998 by Westferry Limited, a company controlled by the Wellington Trust, a trust established by Mr O'Brien for the benefit of himself and his immediate family.Both Mr O'Brien and Mr Lowry have stated that Mr Lowry had no involvement in the Doncaster transaction. Mr O'Brien contended there is no evidence to support the proposed public inquiry.
In his dissenting judgment, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, said there was an easy route provided by statute for seeking an expansion of the Tribunal's terms of reference and it was for the Oireachtas and not the courts or the Tribunal to decide whether this extension should take place. Without the Oireachtas doing so, he did not believe that the Doncaster Rovers issue was within the scope of the Tribunal's inquiries.
