The scale of the issues at stake means that the fallout from the findings of the Moriarty tribunal in relation to the 1995 second mobile phone licence competition are just not going to go away.

The High Court in Dublin yesterday put back to next month a ruling on Denis O'Brien's application to be made a defendant in the case being taken by Persona against the State and arising from the 1995 competition.

Persona came second to O'Brien's Esat Digifone and, on the basis of the tribunal's finding that the competition was interfered with by Michael Lowry with the aim of assisting Esat, it wants to argue that it was hard done by.

Persona’s case in relation to O’Brien’s application is straightforward enough. It says it is suing the State, the body responsible for the holding of the competition, and that the case, in that sense, does not directly concern O’Brien.

O’Brien’s position is that the case involves allegations about his conduct – allegations which he denies – and that he must be allowed defend himself.

An intriguing aspect of the affair is the position of the State. It hosted the competition, issued the licence, established and paid for the tribunal and apparently accepts its conclusions. (Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said so, though not in the Dáil.)

Yet the position of the State in the case taken by Persona is that it is contesting the claim that the competition was not properly run and that the second-ranked bidder has an entitlement to damages.

It has also told the court that, in the event the Persona claim succeeds, it wants O’Brien and Lowry to be made liable for any damages that might arise.

At one stage, the State argued successfully that the Persona claim had run out of time but that High Court decision was overturned by the Supreme Court, which found that the issues involved were so serious that it was in the interest of the State that they be heard.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke, in his ruling, said that "if the allegations which are made in these proceedings, and which formed the subject of the findings of the Moriarty tribunal, were to be established in a court of competent jurisdiction, they would amount to amongst the most serious factual determinations made by
a court in this jurisdiction since the foundation of the State".

Even so, it is hard not to believe that there are a lot of parties who wish the issue would just go away.

That seems unlikely.