Those in Leinster House who hope the Flood tribunal will go away in time for the general election can think again. More than three years after he was appointed, Mr Justice Feargus Flood and his team of lawyers seem to be digging in at Dublin Castle for the long haul. For a start, a new lawyer has been appointed to the tribunal's legal team to help with the increased volume of work. It is rumoured the new member, who is to leave promising and lucrative employment in a city centre firm, has been assured of a minimum of two years' tribunal work. Moves are also under way to make the witness box in Dublin Castle larger - not because the witnesses are getting bigger, but because of the need to accommodate the ever-growing pile of documentation generated by the tribunal. More than 100 witnesses have been in the box since the tribunal started public hearing in January 1999, but now it is felt the present piece of furniture is not big enough.
Mr Justice Flood may have passed the normal retirement age for judges of 72 years, but his relish for the job appears undimmed. Far from reducing his workload he has decided that the tribunal should increase the number of sitting days each week to five, in order to speed up the present Century hearings. After that there's Frank Dunlop, George Redmond, Tom Gilmartin, Liam Lawlor (maybe), MMDS - and who knows who, or what, else on the agenda.
Meanwhile the tribunal which is investigating payments to politicians trundles on, under Mr Justice Michael Moriarty. It is expected to reconvene in public at the castle in about two weeks, when the chairman will report on the judgment of the independent doctor on whether or not Charlie Haughey is medically fit to continue his evidence. The chairman will also pronounce on how his investigations are progressing, and how much longer he expects to be sitting. The general opinion is that he will finish up in the new year.