While Mr Liam Lawlor was giving the media the slip - again - on his release from jail, the High Court delivered an important ruling in the tribunal's favour in another branch of its investigations.
Mr Lawlor's liberty could prove short-lived if allegations that financial documents belonging to him and relevant to the tribunal were destroyed at his home in Lucan are shown to be true. This would place him at odds with the tribunal but more immediately with the High Court, which has ordered him to produce all financial records dating back to 1974.
However, Mr Lawlor's side of the story has yet to be heard; one of the first things he was likely to do on leaving Mountjoy yesterday was to talk to his lawyers.
Three things Mr Lawlor didn't pick up on leaving jail were his mobile phones, which the tribunal took into its possession during his seven-day stay.
The matter came up for consideration at yesterday's hearing of the tribunal, but was adjourned for consideration to this afternoon, after the TD's counsel, Mr Ray Delahunt, requested more time to take instructions.
Meanwhile, the High Court has ruled that the tribunal is entitled to know the beneficial owners of Jackson Way Properties (JWP), an offshore company involved in land dealings the tribunal is investigating. This means that Mr Stephen Miley, the solicitor representing JWP, will have to name his clients before the tribunal, unless he appeals the case to the Supreme Court.
Mr Miley had argued he was precluded by the rules of solicitor/client confidentiality from doing so.
JWP is the owner of lands at Carrickmines in south Dublin, which it sought to rezone. Another offshore company, Paisley Park Investments (PPI), previously owned this land. Mr Frank Dunlop has told the tribunal PPI paid him a large sum in the early 1990s to lobby for the rezoning of the property. The businessman and amusement arcade owner, Mr Jim Kennedy, who has been linked to Mr Lawlor and Mr George Redmond, originally owned the land.
The tribunal believes the beneficial owners of PPI and JWP were the same and the transfer of the lands to JWP may have been "an elaborate charade" to get support for rezoning. It had reason to believe the beneficial owners of JWP were Irish people who had gone to "elaborate lengths" to conceal their identities, the High Court was told during earlier proceedings.
Back in Dublin Castle, the cofounder of Century Radio, Mr James Stafford, made a return to the witness box. Mr Stafford spent the afternoon fending off questions about his knowledge of the £35,000 payment by his colleague Mr Oliver Barry to Mr Ray Burke in 1989.
It is Mr Stafford's case that he didn't know of this payment until 1991. But there is no evidence to show he challenged Mr Barry before this date when the latter was "shy" of this sum in his overall investment in the station.
Mr Stafford's explanation was that it had "escaped his attention" that Mr Barry was short. The reason why this wasn't disclosed to Century's solicitor or to new investors was that it was "overlooked".
Mr Paul Marren, a solicitor with one of Century's legal firms, Mark E. Marren, was asked about a figure of £40,000 which the station's co-founder Mr Barry said was due to him for management services.
Mr Marren said no one had discussed these services with him. They should have been disclosed to Capital Radio when that station was investing in Century, he agreed.
Earlier, the chairman issued a stern warning to the media about a leak of confidential documents from the tribunal. It emerged that the tribunal threatened to seek an injunction last week to prevent a Sunday newspaper printing details of the tribunal's investigations into politicians' bank accounts.
The threat succeeded, and the newspaper decided not to print its planned report, which was based on correspondence between the tribunal and a bank regarding the accounts of 13 named politicians.
However, the document, which was being touted around Dublin during the week, fell into other hands and the report appeared in at least two Sunday papers.
Mr Justice Flood said the information came from an internal bank memo and he called on the bank to carry out an investigation into the leak. A senior official is to be called in due course to report on the outcome of this inquiry.
The chairman said it was "improper and unhelpful in the extreme" for any media to publish the names of people under investigation. Any future breaches of confidentiality would be interpreted as obstructing the work of the tribunal and re ported to the DPP or the High Court, he said.