Mahon tribunal: The planning tribunal could face significant delays and disruption if the Supreme Court today upholds a case taken against the inquiry by developer Owen O'Callaghan.
Current hearings into a land deal at Coolamber in west Dublin have already been postponed until next month, pending this morning's judgment of the court.
More significantly, next week's planned start of hearings into bribery allegations surrounding the rezoning of Quarryvale could be affected.
Last year Mr O'Callaghan successfully challenged the tribunal's refusal to allow his lawyers access to various statements made by builder Tom Gilmartin. In the High Court, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill declared that the tribunal's refusal to grant Mr O'Callaghan access to the statements breached his constitutional right to fair procedures and unreasonably hampered his right to cross-examine Mr Gilmartin.
The tribunal immediately appealed the decision, which could mean that many of its investigations would have to be reopened.
Mr Gilmartin conceived the idea of developing a shopping centre at Quarryvale and was later joined in the venture by Mr O'Callaghan.
However, the two men parted company acrimoniously and Mr O'Callaghan eventually developed the Liffey Valley shopping centre in the mid-1990s.
Hearings into allegations by former government press secretary Frank Dunlop that he bribed Dublin county councillors to rezone the site between 1991 and 1993 are scheduled to begin next Tuesday. However, if the tribunal loses its appeal, it may have to revisit an earlier module based on evidence given by Mr Gilmartin.
In yesterday's evidence, Sean Mooney, a tax adviser to beef baron Larry Goodman, defended his co-operation with the tribunal. Mr Mooney, who this week furnished the inquiry with a further statement detailing the movement of his client's money in Isle of Man accounts, said he had done "an awful lot" to help establish the movement of funds in the accounts.
Senior counsel Des O'Neill, for the tribunal, complained that information had been provided "piecemeal".
However, Mr Mooney insisted he had behaved in a "forthright and upfront" way in trying to assist the tribunal. The transactions had nothing to do with the Coolamber deal, he said.
Earlier, a solicitor told the tribunal how his firm handed over a file relating to Coolamber to Mr Lawlor even though the politician had not paid fees due for its work.
Ronan Hannigan, of Noel Smyth and Partners, agreed it was a mistake to waive normal procedures and hand over the file to Mr Lawlor without issuing a receipt or making a copy.
The former TD promised to return a copy of the file to the firm and to pay legal fees, but he never complied with either of these undertakings, he said.
In March 1999 Mr Lawlor rang the firm, saying he urgently required the file on Elangrove, a company involved in Coolamber, for the tribunal. Mr Hannigan undertook to get the file ready and sent an invoice for £5,500, even though he had "no great expectation" that this would be paid.
