Businessman Denis O'Brien has brought a High Court challenge to a decision of 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 and into the "purported connection" of former government minister Michael Lowry to that purchase.
Both Mr O'Brien and Mr Lowry have denied Mr Lowry had any involvement in the club's purchase.
Mr O'Brien claims there is "not an iota of evidence" to back the decision of the tribunal to proceed to public hearings into the matter in circumstances where crucial witnesses will not be available and his good name and reputation would be damaged.
He also claims the proposed public inquiry is outside the tribunal's terms of reference as the Doncaster purchase occurred after the tribunal was established and two years after Mr Lowry left office.
The judicial review proceedings opened yesterday before Mr Justice Henry Abbott and are expected to last several days.
Outlining the case Eoin McGonigal SC, for Mr O'Brien, said it arose from a decision of the tribunal of May 27th 2004 to hold a public inquiry into the purchase of Doncaster Rovers in August 1998 by a company controlled by Mr O'Brien's trust company.
It was Mr O'Brien's case that the Oireachtas could not, when setting up the tribunal in 1997, have requested it to inquire into a transaction that happened after the tribunal was established.
If the Oireachtas could direct an inquiry into the future, the tribunal would have no ending and would place Mr O'Brien and Mr Lowry under permanent supervisory review.
Mr McGonigal said Mr O'Brien denied making any payments to Mr Lowry or any involvement in any payments made to Mr Lowry.
Counsel said it appeared the tribunal had begun inquiries into the Doncaster Rovers purchase after an article was published in The Irish Times in January 2003 which referred to a letter dated September 25th, 1998 from Christopher Vaughan to Mr Lowry.
Mr Vaughan, an English solicitor who acted for Westferry in the Doncaster Rovers transaction, wrote that he "had not appreciated your total involvement in the Doncaster Rovers transaction".
Mr Vaughan told the tribunal in another letter of March 2003 that he had incorrectly believed at the time that Mr Lowry had an involvement with Doncaster Rovers and that this was an error on his part.
