A legal challenge by Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Fitzwilton group against the planning tribunal is expected to lead to significant delays in the work of the inquiry.
The tribunal's plans to start public hearings into Fitzwilton's £30,000 payment to former minister Ray Burke in 1989 were thrown into disarray yesterday when the High Court gave the go-ahead for the company's challenge.
Fitzwilton is seeking access to documents held by the tribunal, including financial records relating to Fianna Fáil, before public hearings into the controversial payment get under way. It is expected to take further action to prevent the hearings from going ahead if the documents are not provided.
Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan said she would hear the matter on September 20th, one week before the tribunal planned to begin hearings.
A separate challenge made on similar legal grounds - access to documents - by Cork property developer Owen O'Callaghan has led to lengthy delays in unrelated investigations by the tribunal.
In documents lodged with the court yesterday, lawyers for Fitzwilton said Sir Anthony only became aware 10 years after it happened that the 1989 donation intended for Fianna Fáil was made via Mr Burke. It also emerged that the planned hearings will not deal with the granting of MMDS licences, many of them to O'Reilly-linked companies, when Mr Burke was minister for communications.
The tribunal has told Fitzwilton it will limit the scope of hearings to any possible conflicts of evidence between the company and Mr Burke and the question of whether the payment conferred a benefit on any party. The money was paid after Fianna Fáil solicited a £30,000 contribution from Fitzwilton before the 1989 election. "The entirety of the political contribution was intended for, and was expected by, the Fianna Fáil party," the affidavit states.
Fianna Fáil knew the company had paid the sum to the party within a day of the money being handed over to Mr Burke by two executives, it is claimed. Party officials pursued Mr Burke for the money at a fundraising lunch in June 1989 and were given a bank draft for £10,000. Members of Fianna Fáil's fundraising committee complained about the shortfall to the then taoiseach, Charles Haughey, who told them the matter should be "left with him".
Fitzwilton says Mr Burke was "well aware" that the company's contribution was for Fianna Fáil. However, it did not become aware until 1998 that the politician had retained £20,000. Fitzwilton says that after it heard nothing from the inquiry between 2000 and 2003, it presumed the tribunal was satisfied the payment was bona fide.
