Mr Joseph Murphy jnr's antipathy to the former JMSE chairman, Mr James Gogarty, whom he accused of fraudulent behaviour, was apparently contradicted by the fact that he continued to be employed by the group on a consultancy basis and played a key role in recruiting a new chief executive.
In response to questioning by Ms Patricia Dillon SC, Mr Murphy jnr conceded that Mr Gogarty's expertise was badly needed when there was a dearth of top executive talent available to deal with a number of important new contracts that needed careful handling. And he had been instrumental in recruiting Mr Tim Parker as chief executive, he conceded.
None of this affected his own opinion of Mr Gogarty, however, who he said had "fraudulently diverted" a £700,000 payment from the ESB for contractual work carried out at Moneypoint. Mr Gogarty was entitled to half this amount as part of an agreement he had made with Mr Murphy snr. This in turn was in line with the total pension package agreed on his behalf.
Mr Gogarty had "diverted" the payment, Mr Murphy acknowledged, because he felt aggrieved at the delay in settling his pension payment.
"We had no control over this," said Mr Murphy, in response to Ms Dillon. There was a £300,000 lump sum element to the payment that had to be approved by the Revenue Commissioners: "It could not be paid before that."
Another time AGSE, the English-based Murphy company, received an invoice from Mr Gogarty and Mr Murphy refused to pay it, saying that he believed it was covered under the existing terms of his consultancy contract.
Why had the Murphy Group, whose top executives, according to the witness, had come to hold Mr Gogarty in such low esteem, continued to hire him after the ESB incident? Ms Dillon asked. Mr Murphy snr had recognised that Mr Gogarty had pulled a stroke, his son said, but decided to let bygones be bygones. His services were valued, however reluctantly.
Ms Dillon asked why Mr Murphy jnr had placed so much emphasis on the pursuit of the £700,000 ESB monies for the company yet apparently had little interest in the sale of the lands in north Dublin to Bovale. Mr Murphy said that he had little experience with regard to land pricing. His father was satisfied on the advice given by Mr Gogarty that they were getting a fair price for agricultural land and agreed to go ahead with the deal on that basis.
Yet he added: "Maybe the lands were worth more than £2.3 million. Maybe he lowered the value of the lands to get his backhander from Michael Bailey." Mr Justice Flood would have none of it. "The speculation has gone far enough," he said.