Profile Alan P. Mahon - new chairman of the planning tribunal: With a solid background in the Circuit Court, a reputation as a good listener and youth on his side (he's 52), Judge Mahon is well-placed to see out the tribunal's next 15 years, writes Paul Cullen
His father was a lawyer and a judge. His three brothers are lawyers. He married a lawyer. She comes from a family of lawyers. You might say that Alan Mahon is "steeped in the law".
In many ways, however, the new chairman of the planning tribunal (until last week, the Flood tribunal) hardly fits the kir-quaffing, Cohiba-smoking image of the top lawyer. For a start, he comes from Tullamore, Co Offaly, not leafy south Dublin, and he continues to live outside the capital. Refreshingly, his appointment does not appear to have sprung from any obvious family political connections.
Much of his career has been spent on the hard benches of provincial courts in the Midlands, well away from the bearpits of the Four Courts. Friends describe him as a family man, a practising Catholic, someone who is happiest messing around with boats.
"He wouldn't move in fashionable circles. He's certainly not part of the Shelbourne bar set," says one acquaintance. "He can talk as good as any lawyer, but he's a good listener, too. And it doesn't matter to him what your station in life is, he's still happy to share a conversation with you," says another.
Few people who have had contact with Judge Mahon have anything mildly critical to say about him. Some remember his application to complex legal work, others his ability to deliver within strict deadlines. He is said to have a gift for storytelling, and is generally regarded as a serious person.
Judge Mahon will need these qualities in spades when he starts his work in Dublin Castle next week. At some stage, he's going to have to read over one million lines of transcript, the result of four years of tribunal hearings.
That's just to put him in a position to decide on the issue of legal costs, which itself is bound to entail further hearings and litigation.
Then there are the witnesses. Mr Justice Flood turned the business of asking witnesses to "reflect" on their evidence into a fine art. Now his successor will have to develop his own techniques to extract co-operation from the otherwise unwilling.
First up on Tuesday is Liam Lawlor, who has spent six weeks in jail arising from his tussles with the tribunal and is still fighting a one-man war with his protagonists. Just how the new chairman handles the lippy former Fianna Fáil TD is likely to set a marker for his tenure.
Judge Mahon will also have to impress his legal colleagues. In the Bar, status is all-important, and tribunal chairpersons are usually drawn from the ranks of the High Court. Yet the new chairman is a Circuit Court judge (and hence referred to as Judge Mahon, whereas his predecessor was Mr Justice Flood) and, what is more, has been on the Bench for little more than a year.
But at least he was willing to take on a job with the tribunal, when his more senior colleagues declined. And, in the six months he has sat alongside Mr Justice Flood at tribunal hearings, he has impressed observers with an ability to cut to the quick of an issue and ask direct questions.
In the current Carrickmines module, he has watched a succession of politicians come to the witness box to explain why they proposed motions for land they knew nothing about. This prompted Judge Mahon to ask Fianna Fáil councillor Tony Fox why he didn't first seek advice from the planners and engineers in the council.
"Did you see nothing wrong at the time in proposing a matter about which you knew nothing?" he later asked Councillor Charlie O'Connor. "You hadn't a clue where the lands were." Then he pointed out to Senator Don Lydon that in each instance in which the politician had received money, he had either proposed or supported the development proposed by the donor. "You did as they wished you to do," the judges stated, his mellifluous voice barely concealing the bluntness of his point.
Judge Mahon's grandfather James was a self-made man, a public servant who went on to set up a chain of cinemas in the midlands.
Indeed, young Alan spent much of his youth in the local Ritz and Grand Central cinemas in Tullamore.
His father Seamus was a solicitor who served as a District Court judge from 1974 to 1989. There was controversy over his retirement at the age of 70, which ultimately led to the passing of legislation designed to get over legal problems regarding his decisions after the age of 65.
Judge Mahon is the second of four sons of Seamus and Maylon (a family name derived from Mary). Like his father, who died two years ago, he went to the exclusive Clongowes Wood school in Co Kildare. But while his three brothers trained as solicitors and went into the family firm of Hoey & Denning in Tullamore, Alan trained as a barrister in King's Inns. He was called to the Bar in 1976 and became a senior counsel in 1988.
Practising on the Midlands and Eastern circuit, at first he had a mixed practice of criminal, landlord-and-tenant and personal litigation. However, by the mid-1990s, the personal injuries component of his work was growing rapidly. His wife Anne Marie Reidy came from a Co Kildare legal family, and the family home is in Naas, so he was well-placed to pick up work from local solicitors when soldiers in the nearby Curragh camp started suing for deafness in their thousands.
His association with Newbridge firm, P.V. Boland, which handled 1,300 of these cases, proved particularly fruitful, and Mahon represented a variety of Army and Air Corps personnel who suffered hearing loss after their years in service.
In June 2001, Mr Justice Flood asked the Government for extra members to help him with the workload of the tribunal. Several dozen people applied but none was deemed suitable for the positions. Finally, eight months later, the Government announced the appointment of Mahon, then still a senior counsel, and Mary Faherty SC, as well as a reserve member, barrister Gerald Keys.
But even this process took time; the new members first had to become judges and this required legislation to increase the permissible number of circuit court judges. It wasn't until October 2002 that they were appointed to the tribunal.
Outside work, Judge Mahon leads a quiet, family-centred life. He keeps a "modest" boat on the Shannon and has a passing interest in rugby, but spurns golf and the country pursuits commonly preferred by wealthy provincials.
Although "a serious fellow," he is not bookish, according to a family friend.
He and Anne Marie have four children, ranging in age from 14 to 21, with the three boys following their father and grandfather into Clongowes.
When Mr Justice Flood decided to step down, Judge Mahon as the next most senior judge on the tribunal, was the natural choice to succeed him.
He lacks the familiarity and colour of his diminutive predecessor, but at 52, he at least has relative youth on his side. It's something he'll need if the tribunal continues, as many predict, for another 15 years.