The Mahon tribunal has ruled that the former Fianna Fáil TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, failed to co-operate with its inquiry, but has given him one last chance to avoid contempt proceedings in the High Court which could result in his imprisonment.
Delivering the tribunal's ruling after 10 days of evidence from Mr Lawlor, the chairman, Judge Alan Mahon, said he was satisfied that Mr Lawlor had failed to comply with its order of March 2002 to provide full details of his financial affairs.
Judge Mahon dismissed Mr Lawlor's claim that he could not afford to pay fees to overseas legal advisers who are seeking payment before releasing his files.
The chairman said that Mr Lawlor had sufficient funds available to pay his advisers and an order to the High Court was therefore warranted. However, he deferred a final decision on the matter until next Thursday to see if Mr Lawlor provided any of the information sought before then.
The politician has been given until next Tuesday to swear such an affidavit.
Judge Mahon said that the tribunal would take account of this before making any further order to the High Court.
Mr Lawlor then asked if he could be provided with an "elaboration" of the areas the tribunal was interested in to ensure that he was in compliance.
However, the chairman refused the request, saying that Mr Lawlor should know what was required after 2½ weeks of evidence. He said that the tribunal did not know what documents were out there, so it was a matter for Mr Lawlor to do what he wished to do.
Mr Lawlor asked for extra time to prepare a written submission, but this request was also refused.
The chairman said that the tribunal's decision was final and that Mr Lawlor had already had "more than ample" time in which to comply with its orders.
Mr Lawlor has already spent a total of six weeks in jail on three separate occasions after the High Court found that he had failed to co-operate with the tribunal. If the tribunal does decide to refer him to the court once more, it will have to start a new set of proceedings. These are unlikely to begin before the autumn.
With the completion of the hearings into Mr Lawlor's compliance, the tribunal will now resume its investigation of alleged political corruption involving land at Carrickmines in south Co Dublin.
A number of bank witnesses and former independent councillor Mr John O'Halloran are due to give evidence in this module of the tribunal today. The tribunal last heard evidence on Carrickmines on May 2nd.
