Businessman Denis O'Brien has asked the Supreme Court to quash a decision by the Moriarty tribunal to hold public hearings into the purchase in 1998 of Doncaster Rovers football club by a company controlled by the O'Brien family trust.
Mr O'Brien lost his High Court attempt last August to stop the Moriarty tribunal inquiring into the purchase of the English club and it refused to grant an order quashing the tribunal's decision to proceed to public hearings.
In his appeal yesterday at the Supreme Court, Mr O'Brien's lawyers argued that the proposed hearings were outside the Moriarty tribunal's terms of reference because the transaction took place after the inquiry was set up in 1997. The Doncaster Rovers transaction was considered a 1998 payment.
The tribunal is investigating claims that former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry was involved in the purchase of the football club. Doncaster Rovers was bought for €4.3 million in August 1998 by a company acting for Mr O'Brien's family trust. Mr O'Brien and Mr Lowry have both stated that Mr Lowry was not involved, but the tribunal says a letter written by English solicitor Christopher Vaughan in September 1998 appears to point to his involvement.
Mr O'Brien argues that the tribunal's terms of reference only covered alleged payments to Mr Lowry when he held public office and that its only evidence is Mr Vaughan's letter, the date of which is in dispute.
The appeal continues today.