The chairman of the Moriarty tribunal has published a ruling on the issue of the rules of evidence that will apply to the report he is in the process of writing. Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent, reports.
The report will focus on payments to former minister Michael Lowry, an earlier report having focused on payments to the late Charles Haughey.
In the short ruling, which follows submissions by a number of parties, Mr Justice Moriarty said rules of evidence would not be applied by the tribunal with the same strictness as in either civil or criminal proceedings.
"At the same time, as has already been acknowledged [in the Haughey report], findings should not be made or conclusions drawn which may have a significant impact on an individual or corporate or other entity where central elements of the relevant material have not, for example by reason of being hearsay, been subject to adequate scrutiny either by or on behalf of the tribunal or by or on behalf of any affected person or entity."
The chairman has already made a ruling on the issue of the standards of proof that will apply in the forthcoming report.
Businessman Denis O'Brien, whose company Esat Digifone won the 1995 competition for the State's second mobile phone licence at a time when Mr Lowry was minister for communications, has made submissions on both the issues on which the judge has now ruled.
Mr O'Brien was seeking a heightened standard of civil proof, and also argued against certain matters being considered by the tribunal because they had not been "proved" by way of sworn evidence.
He drew particular attention to matters that have been reviewed in public hearings concerning Doncaster Rovers Football Club Ltd, and about which a number of key witnesses based abroad have not attended to give evidence.
"It would be both impracticable, if not impossible, to provide an extensive ruling, in the abstract, on the question of what constitutes evidence at this stage of the tribunal's proceedings," Mr Justice Moriarty said in his ruling yesterday.
"It seems preferable to indicate the tribunal's view of the matter in broad outline and by way of guidance which may be of some use to affected persons or entities when it becomes necessary to address the matter in more concrete terms once the tribunal has notified its provisional findings.
"As has already been stated repeatedly, the tribunal is not bound by rules of evidence as applied by courts in the determination of liability either in criminal or civil matters.
"This approach has been expressly approved by the High Court and Supreme Court."