Builder Mr Tom Brennan will be referred to the High Court unless he produces documents by next Tuesday which have been requested by the tribunal, Mr Justice Flood ruled yesterday. Mr Justice Flood said the tribunal has endeavoured to obtain documents, through statutory orders, from Mr Brennan and from builder Mr Joe McGowan about, among other things, their financial affairs in the Isle of Man and in Liechtenstein.
What information was required was made "very clear" in the tribunal's statutory orders. All documents and information requested must be provided by 9 a.m. on Tuesday, said Mr Justice Flood.
The tribunal's legal team had argued earlier yesterday its investigations were being "stonewalled" because Mr Brennan and his lawyers were not supplying the tribunal with the documents. Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, said so far it had received none of the documents or affidavits describing the documents.
"Nobody asked for any extension - they simply did not comply. What you [Mr Justice Flood] are getting is excuses." Mr Hanratty said he was a "substantial" way through his examination of Mr Brennan, but had not been furnished with documents which have a "direct relevance" to the witness.
However, Mr Martin Hayden SC, for Mr Brennan, rejected the suggestion that they were deliberately delaying the tribunal. He said it was "inaccurate" to suggest no documents had been furnished, and he said every effort was being made to obtain other documents, but these efforts had met with a number of difficulties.
Mr Hanratty said no documents requested by the orders had been received. Other documents, however, had been delivered to the tribunal.
Mr Hanratty said the tribunal had made four orders. The first concerned records and documents of payments by Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan to former minister Mr Ray Burke.
Other orders concerned a list of 46 transactions involving Mr Brennan; details of Mr Brennan's accounts, including ones in the Isle of Man and Liechtenstein; and details of property transactions involving Mr Brennan at 6/7 St Stephen's Green and in Donnybrook, Dublin.
Mr Hayden said the administrator of Mr Brennan's offshore trust in the Isle of Man, Mr Martin Bullock, did not want to release the documents relating to the company. Mr Hayden said Mr Bullock believes the documents to be private, and does not intend to make them "available in their entirety".
The suggestion that a trustee could not obtain documents relating to their own trusts was rejected as "preposterous" by Mr Hanratty. He told Mr Hayden if he wanted to argue this point "the person to be persuaded is a High Court judge".
Mr Hayden also said some files relating to St Stephen's Green and Donnybrook had been destroyed, in accordance with normal legal practice.
Mr Hayden said Mr Brennan had provided a substantial number of documents to the tribunal. He said Mr Brennan was trying to get the documents requested by the tribunal, but given the time span, his being in the witnesses box, and his preparation for his intended evidence, this had been difficult.
As Mr Hayden was speaking yesterday morning, he was informed documents from Liechtenstein had arrived. But he said later the documents were in German and "arrangements are in train for translation into English".
Mr Justice Flood said earlier yesterday he intends "to enforce, quite definitely, each of these orders. They [the documents] must be provided" and no excuses of any kind would be accepted.