The businessman Mr Dermot Desmond has failed in his High Court bid to restrain the Moriarty tribunal from allowing reference to the 10-year-old Glackin Report, which was critical of his part in the purchase of the former Johnson Mooney & O'Brien site in Ballsbridge.
Mr Desmond had claimed that such repeated references were damaging to his reputation and good name and that the report was irrelevant to the tribunal's investigation of decisions in the mid-1990s relating to the award of a second GSM phone licence to ESAT Digifone.
Mr Justice John Quirke, in a reserved judgment, found that the Glackin Report was relevant to the work of the tribunal and that the sole member, Judge Michael Moriarty, had not breached principles of natural justice or fair procedures in his dealings with Mr Desmond.
Judge Quirke said the Glackin Report, published in 1993 after an investigation into ownership of the Johnson Mooney & O'Brien property in Ballsbridge, Dublin, had dealt with some of Mr Desmond's former business dealings.
He said the Glackin Report contained findings which were critical of Mr Desmond and his apparent association with two companies connected with the purchase of that property.
He said Mr Desmond's former business transactions and dealings were and remained relevant as to whether or not he had avoided the evaluation process in the awarding by Mr Michael Lowry of the phone licence to ESAT Digifone, a consortium which included IIU Nominees Ltd, a company beneficially owned by Mr Desmond.
Mr Justice Quirke said Judge Moriarty was entitled to follow every line of inquiry within his terms of reference until he had either found facts which gave rise to concern or established that the concern voiced was groundless.