The Flood tribunal chairman yesterday described the two affidavits furnished to the tribunal by Mr Liam Lawlor TD as being "in unbelievable chaos".
"I have seldom or ever seen an affidavit, or two affidavits to be precise, in such unbelievable chaos. It is unbelievable that anybody could ever produce such a document," Mr Justice Flood said.
Mr Lawlor's counsel, Mr Ray Delahunt, had asked the chairman for his client to be furnished with documents the tribunal had in relation to Mr Lawlor's accounts.
Mr Justice Flood said: "It is the most remarkable application in 50 years of my association with the courts that I have ever heard." It was the duty of the person who was the subject of an order of discovery to make discovery, and if he did not have the documents in his possession, it was his duty to go and collect them from the source, he said. "This tribunal is not a source invested with assisting you in putting together an affidavit. Your client is supposed to be deposing on oath to the truth of what he is saying," the chairman said.
He said he would make it quite clear he had no intention of ever ordering the furnishing of any documents.