A lawyer for the Flood Tribunal said yesterday there had been no decision taken as to whom the next witness at the tribunal would be once Mr James Gogarty's evidence was concluded. Mr John Gallaher SC, for the tribunal, said they had had no idea when the examination of Mr Gogarty would conclude. The matter would have to be addressed in the next day or so.
The question was raised by Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for the Murphy group, who completed a recross-examination of Mr Gogarty yesterday. Mr Gogarty will be re called on Tuesday when he will be examined by his counsel, Mr Frank Callanan SC.
The re-cross-examination was considerably delayed yesterday as the chairman and the tribunal legal team consulted in private as to which matters Mr Cooney would be allowed to pursue based on new evidence arising from cross-examination by other parties.
Mr Cooney said Mr Denis Mc Ardle, the Murphy group company solicitor, wrote a memo on December 13th, 1989, at the time of the sale of the Murphy lands, in which he noted that Mr Joseph Murphy snr asked: "Is the purchaser sound?" He said there was no way Mr Murphy would have said such a thing to Mr McArdle if he was as closely involved as Mr Gogarty had said about the negotiations about the sale.
Mr Gogarty said that was because he wanted the assets out of the State as soon as possible. "That man [(Mr Murphy senior] was irrational."
In another note, Mr McArdle referred to "someone useful to Jim". Mr Gogarty acknowledged that the someone probably meant Mr George Redmond, the former assistant Dublin city and county manager.