The Fitzwilton group has brought a High Court action aimed at restraining the Mahon tribunal from holding a public hearing into the payment in 1989 by one of its companies of £30,000 (€38,100) to former minister Ray Burke for Fianna Fáil funds.
Fitzwilton claims the tribunal cannot proceed to a public hearing into the matter because this would be in breach of the tribunal's terms of reference as amended in December 2004. It contends those terms required the tribunal to stipulate in writing which matters would go to public hearing by May 1st, 2005, but the Fitzwilton payment was not so stipulated.
The court was told the Fitzwilton group had, through a subsidiary company, made a payment to Mr Burke in 1989 in advance of that year's general election. Mr Burke had officially solicited the payment, the company added. However, Fitzwilton said that while the money was intended as a donation for Fianna Fáil, it was learned in 1998 that Mr Burke had retained £20,000.
John Gordon SC, for Fitzwilton, said the proceedings involved a narrow but important issue - whether the proposed public hearing complied with the tribunal's amended terms of reference.