THE MORIARTY (Payments to Politicians) Tribunal resumes hearing evidence today, having last sat in public in June 2007 for what was then thought to have been its final sitting.
The chairman, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty, told the Government early last year he expected his second and final report would be finished by the end of 2007.
However, since then he has issued a number of rulings or findings on legal submissions made to the tribunal by parties who have appeared before it, including findings on the rules of evidence and standards of proof that he will apply in the report.
Today's sitting is to allow for the questioning of economist Dr Peter Bacon, who produced a report for the tribunal when it was conducting its inquiry into the granting of the State's second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone in 1996.
The existence of the report was not disclosed to parties who appeared before the tribunal and who were questioned at length about the licence process.
The founder of Esat Digifone, Denis O'Brien, has been pressing for the calling of Dr Bacon. Last year he said the failure to make the Bacon report available at the time witnesses were being questioned was a flaw that could have a "a serious, possibly fatal, impact" on the standing of the evidence taken.
The long-awaited second report will deal with the issue of payments to the former minister for transport, energy and communications, Michael Lowry.
