The taxpayer isn't the only person paying for the Flood tribunal, as the latest accounts from two of the main companies under investigation, Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering and Bovale Developments, show.

So far, the tribunal has cost more than £11 million (€14 million) since it was set up in November 1997, with legal fees accounting for most of it.

However, both JMSE and Bovale have been severely affected by the protracted investigations into their affairs, arising out of their unwilling involvement in the tribunal.

JMSE was a little-known engineering company with a proud tradition in steel erection until it got involved in the tribunal. It provided the steel that built the Sellafield and Sizewell nuclear plants in Britain, where most of its business was done, as well as the ESB's Moneypoint generating station in Co Clare.

Today, it is famous as the company that gave the former Fianna Fβil minister, Mr Ray Burke, two envelopes containing at least £30,000 in the politician's home in June 1989.

The money was handed over by Mr James Gogarty, the company's chairman, who became the country's best-known octogenarian when he revealed the details of the payment at the tribunal two years ago. But for JMSE, the fame brought by the tribunal has been accompanied by uncertainty and huge expense. So far, its involvement has cost more than £600,000, and even higher costs are likely to emerge in subsequent sets of accounts.

Largely as a result of this, it has abandoned the business it knows best, that of steel fabrication and erection. The group of companies owned by the Murphy family still controls a variety of interests, including various land companies and the Gaiety Theatre.

Mr Justice Flood will adjudicate later this year on Mr Gogarty's allegations about corruption. The Murphy family and the senior executives of JMSE, who have vigorously contested almost everything their former chairman alleged, will eagerly await his findings.

However, of equal importance to the company's accounts will be Mr Justice Flood's decision on costs. Since 1998, JMSE has provided massive funding for the legal team engaged to fight Mr Gogarty's claims. At one point, it was paying for three senior counsels, led by Mr Garrett Cooney SC, as well as a number of juniors and a public relations consultant. As well as appearing at the tribunal, the lawyers also took court proceedings on behalf of the company on at least two occasions.

Whether it can now recoup this outlay depends on the chairman's decision on costs. Mr Justice Flood can withhold some or all of the costs due to a party if he believes it has not co-operated fully with the tribunal. He also has the power to bill parties with the tribunal's costs if they are deemed not to have co-operated.

Bovale's situation is even worse. The tribunal's investigations clearly exposed the frailties of the company's accounts, leading its auditor to conclude that the books were not in order. Bovale has already made a settlement with the Revenue arising from the problems with its accounts that emerged at the tribunal, but the criticism meted out by the tribunal to its directors, Mr Michael Bailey and Mr Tom Bailey, cannot give the company great hope for vindication in Mr Justice Flood's final report.