The Flood tribunal chairman will decide today whether, or to what extent, counsel for the Murphy group will be allowed to cross-examine further, chief witness Mr James Gogarty, the tribunal was told yesterday.
Mr Justice Flood adjourned the tribunal yesterday after legal argument when Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for the Murphy Group, applied for liberty to cross-examine further Mr Gogarty on the basis that certain information was new to him.
The chairman is also expected to give a ruling today on a proposed compromise by the Murphy group to the chairman's decision to admit in evidence the affidavit of a former JMSE chief executive, the late Mr Liam Conroy. The Murphy group has opposed its admission and stated it will challenge the chairman's decision in the High Court. It proposed a compromise that the evidence be admitted but in private session only.
When the tribunal resumed yesterday morning, the issue of re-cross-examination arose and Mr Gogarty, who was waiting in a side room, was not called to the witness box. The chairman said that five minutes previously, he had been handed a document from the Murphy legal team relating to topics for further cross-examination which was effectively "something akin to a crossword puzzle". Mr Cooney said he made an application a long time ago to cross-examine on new matters that arose during cross-examination of Mr Gogarty by Mr Colm Allen SC, for the Baileys, and other counsel.
The chairman said he had indicated to him that if he could demonstrate that the matters were fresh, then he would operate the rule to allow him to cross-examine. Mr Cooney said he was entitled to cross-examine the witness either initially or in re-cross-examination without giving the witness notice of what he intended to put to him.
The tribunal adjourned for nearly an hour, while the chairman considered the matter. When he returned, he said fair procedures required him to make a decision as to whether and to what extent a witness who had already been cross-examined by a party may be further cross-examined by the same party.
"Given the nature of the document which has been furnished today, which does not identify specific issues upon which Mr Cooney wishes to cross-examine, it will be necessary for the tribunal to identify all possible issues which may arise following the consideration of the transcript pages referred to by Mr Cooney," he said.