As Mr James Gogarty enters the witness-box at the planning tribunal this morning for his last full day of evidence, the tribunal finds itself facing a High Court challenge once again.
Counsel for the tribunal is expected to complete its "sweeper" role of re-examining Mr Gogarty this morning, leaving only one outstanding matter on which the witness is to be questioned.
This relates to the affidavit sworn by Mr Liam Conroy, a former chief executive of the Murphy group, which Mr Justice Flood ruled yesterday should be dealt with in public.
Lawyers for the Murphys are to go to the High Court today to seek a judicial review of this decision, a process which is expected to take several weeks. Mr Gogarty would then be recalled briefly to give his evidence on the affidavit, but whether this takes place in public or in private depends on the outcome in the courts.
However, this litigation is not expected to have any other delaying effects on the tribunal, which will proceed to hear other witnesses linked to Mr Gogarty's evidence shortly.
After a week dogged by legal wrangling and other matters, Mr Gogarty returned to the witness-box yesterday in relaxed and emollient form.
The tension which hung around the hall in Dublin Castle when Mr Gogarty was under hostile cross-examination was markedly absent as the witness answered questions from his own counsel, Mr Frank Callanan SC.
On the Conroy affidavit, the Murphys had argued that since Mr Conroy was dead, he could not be cross-examined on the contents of his affidavit. This was sworn more than 10 years ago and contained serious allegations against Mr Joseph Murphy snr which had nothing to do with the tribunal's terms of reference.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Flood said there had to be "a major reason" for departing from the principle of holding hearings in public. Mr Murphy would be able to give evidence regarding his version of events.
Mr Callanan's examination took the form of a quick amble through a wide variety of issues, on which Mr Gogarty was invited to make plain his version of events. We learned that Mr Gogarty's claim for damage to a window in his house in Sutton, allegedly caused by a shot, was settled with the insurers back in October 1991.
Mr Callanan pointed out that the Bailey brothers claim to have seen pellet-holes in Mr Gogarty's window during a visit in 1996, but the witness said this was impossible and "a complete invention".
As for the pension scheme in JMSE which the company claims he cancelled in 1981-82, Mr Gogarty said this was intended mainly for shop-floor workers and was worth "buttons", or £40 a year. The surrender value of his policy was about £12,000 but this was repaid to the company, the tribunal was told.
Mr Gogarty restated his allegations about the former minister for foreign affairs, Mr Ray Burke. He said the developer Mr Michael Bailey was a major contributor to Fianna Fail, Mr Burke and Mr Charles Haughey.
Fianna Fail held a majority on Dublin County Council and could secure votes even by crossing the political divide to procure the requisite majorities for re-zonings.
Mr Bailey said Mr Burke would have to be paid substantially for his help, Mr Gogarty alleged. "He was pressing him to get payment in cash."
Mr Callanan tried hard to dispel the impression created by the Murphys that Mr Gogarty came into a windfall, amounting to £760,000, on his retirement.
A sum of £300,000 which was provided for a pension was paid eight months late, Mr Gogarty claimed, and was equivalent to £18,000 a year. He was fully taxed on consultancy fees of £23,500 a year over five years, even though his disagreements with Murphys meant that he was inactive for most of this period.
Although Mr Gogarty received £215,000 as his share of a settlement reached wit the ESB, this was worth only £105,000 after tax, he said.
Mr Gogarty also denied he had ever made a donation to the Progressive Democrats, or indeed to any political party. Mr Cooney had earlier producing evidence appearing to link Mr Gogarty to a £1,000 donation to Mr Des O'Malley in 1989.
However, Mr Gogarty said this evidence was "amazing". He said the wife of a senior JMSE executive stood for the PDs in a number of general elections. This was a reference to Dr Mary Grehan, wife of Mr Gay Grehan, a director of the company at the time. Mr Gogarty referred to her as "a decent girl".
For the first time, we learned in detail about Mr Roger Copsey, a somewhat mysterious figure in the Murphy group who has been the subject of savage criticism by Mr Gogarty.
Mr Gogarty has claimed it was Mr Copsey who sought his resignation in July 1988. It was Mr Copsey who gave him accounts to sign while knowing, along with Mr Murphy, that "they were suspect". It was Mr Copsey who attempted to arrange the payment of Mr Gogarty's pension in the most tax-efficient manner "behind my back".
Yesterday we learned that in April 1990 Mr Copsey was fined £15,000 by the professional body for accountants in England over his involvement in the collapse of the International Finance and Trust Corporation, a small Isle of Man-based bank owned by Mr Murphy. Mr Gogarty says Mr Murphy lost millions in this venture.
At the time of the IFTC debacle, Mr Copsey was acting as a financial adviser to Mr Murphy, but by 1988 he had re-emerged as the financial controller of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering.
Mr Gogarty said his fellow director, Mr Frank Reynolds, was worried about the conduct of Mr Copsey and provided him with information on the finding of the English accountants' body.