Lawyers for the auctioneer Mr John Finnegan have threatened High Court action to end the tribunal's investigations into their client.
Accusing the tribunal of a "systematic character assassination" of Mr Finnegan, his legal team said the tribunal had no cause for further investigation as Mr Finnegan took no part in a payment to the former minister, Mr Ray Burke.
Not only did Mr Finnegan make no payment to Mr Burke, he was "kept in the dark" about payments by the builders Mr Tom Brennan and Mr Brendan McGowan, said Mr Dominic Hussey SC, for Mr Finnegan.
The treatment of his client by the tribunal was a fraud and amounted to utter vilification. Remarks at the tribunal last week had caused incalculable damage to Mr Finnegan's reputation, said Mr Hussey.
However, Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, dismissed the comments as a "PR stunt". His questioning of Mr Brennan about the builders' dealings with Mr Finnegan were "legitimate, conscientious and in context".
It was his duty to ask those questions. The application to release Mr Finnegan from the tribunal's inquiries was "unprecedented and ridiculous", said Mr Hanratty.
Mr Justice Flood rejected the application to have Mr Finnegan exempted, ruling that evidence should proceed. He added that it was every citizen's right to go to the High Court if they so wished.
Mr Hussey said a document which "would nail absolutely any question of any payment" made by his client to Mr Burke was ignored at the tribunal last week and only emerged from Mr Hussey's cross-examination of Mr Brennan.
The document was a telex sent by Mr Laurence Wheeler, the legal adviser to Brennan and McGowan in Jersey, to Mr D.J. Barry of College Trustees, Mr Finnegan's offshore trust.
It was sent in November 1984 on the day, or one day after, a payment was made to Mr Burke's offshore company, Caviar Ltd.
The document referred to a deduction of £10,000 "as agreed" from Foxtown Investments' one-third share of the proceeds of this transaction. Foxtown Investments is Mr Finnegan's offshore company.