The Moriarty tribunal has found six documents recording links between former government minister Michael Lowry and a £4.3 million sterling property deal in Doncaster, England, writes Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent.
Mr Lowry has told the tribunal he had no involvement with the 1998 transaction, which telecoms tycoon Denis O'Brien says belongs exclusively to him.
The tribunal yesterday opened a public hearing into the matter, which is expected to last two to three weeks.
In his opening statement, tribunal counsel Jerry Healy SC, said the "official papers" from the transaction contained no mention of Mr Lowry.
However, he then read into the record a number of documents that the tribunal has discovered and that mention Mr Lowry in relation to the deal.
Two of the documents are letters from "experienced and responsible solicitors" who had recorded an understanding that Mr Lowry was involved, Mr Healy said.
Mr Healy also said the tribunal would be investigating the role played by Denis O'Connor, an accountant and adviser to Mr Lowry, who became involved in trying to settle disputes that arose between some parties involved in the wake of the deal.
Mr O'Connor has said he became involved at the request of Mr O'Brien's father, Denis O'Brien snr.
The property deal involved the purchase of a company, Doncaster Rovers Football Club Ltd, which owned the lease on the Doncaster football stadium.
The intention was to move the team to a new stadium and redevelop the site of the old stadium, which is in central Doncaster.
The tribunal began private inquiries into the matter after a report in The Irish Times in January 2003 concerning a letter that appeared to link Mr Lowry to the deal, Mr Healy said.
When the tribunal sought to hold public hearings into the matter in 2004, the move was challenged by Mr O'Brien, unsuccessfully, in the High Court and the Supreme Court.
Mr Healy said these court hearings led to the production of new information that had not been available to the tribunal up to then.
The tribunal has already heard evidence in public concerning smaller property deals in Mansfield and Cheadle with which Mr Lowry was involved in 1998/1999.
It is investigating whether the funds for those transactions came in part from Mr O'Brien.
Mr O'Brien has said he knew nothing of these deals at the time.
The tribunal has also conducted a detailed public inquiry into the awarding of the State's second mobile phone licence to Mr O'Brien's Esat Digifone in 1996.
Mr Lowry was the relevant minister at the time but had no official role in the selection of Esat.
The competition for the licence was run by a group made up mainly of civil servants and structured to be free of political interference.
The licence award was one of the largest commercial awards ever made by the State.
Mr O'Brien sold his telecoms company a number of years later and made a profit of almost €300 million.
He has since developed a new mobile phone company in the Caribbean, Digicel, which is now valued at €1.8 billion.
At the outset of yesterday's hearing the chairman, Mr Justice Moriarty, said he had an undertaking with the Government and the Oireachtas that the second part of his report would be furnished by the end of this year.
"Whilst, of course, I must continue to adhere to the requirements of fairness towards all persons affected, I unequivocally and emphatically intend to honour that commitment," he said.