The former Fianna Fail TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, will not have to appear before the Flood tribunal pending the outcome of his Supreme Court appeal against a High Court order directing him to attend a public sitting of the tribunal.
The date of the appeal was yesterday set for November 24th.
Mr Bryan Murray, for the tribunal, told the Supreme Court yesterday the issues in the appeal might be reduced to a single point, whether Mr Lawlor should attend a public or a private hearing of the tribunal. He said that point could be argued at the Supreme Court within half a day.
Mr Murray suggested that, instead of the Supreme Court hearing an application for a stay on the High Court order today, as had been intended, it should instead determine the issue at an early hearing and it might be heard today if possible.
Mr John Rogers SC, for Mr Lawlor, who was present at yesterday's brief hearing, agreed that the question of whether Mr Lawlor should attend a public or private tribunal session was the issue. He said Mr Murray was effectively seeking to overturn the Supreme Court decision in an action taken by a former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, against the Moriarty tribunal.
In that decision, the Supreme Court held that fair procedures were not followed by the tribunal when it made orders compelling the discovery of documents related to financial accounts held by Mr Haughey and members of his family.
In those circumstances, Mr Rogers said, he believed Mr Lawlor's appeal should be dealt with by a five-judge Supreme Court.
After exchanges with the judges, Mr Murray indicated that, if Mr Lawlor's Supreme Court appeal was to be heard soon, the tribunal would not object to a short stay on the High Court order directing Mr Lawlor to appear before a public session of the tribunal. It would object to a long stay.
After considering the matter, Mr Justice Murphy, presiding, with Ms Justice McGuinness and Mr Justice Fennelly, said the court would fix the appeal hearing for November 24th and would put a stay on the High Court order pending the outcome of the appeal. He said the appeal should be heard comfortably within a day.
In the light of the fixing of an early appeal date, the parties agreed there was no need for the matter to come before the Supreme Court today.
Last month the High Court directed Mr Lawlor should attend a public sitting of the tribunal on November 7th and provide documents to the tribunal within a given timescale. The Supreme Court later allowed Mr Lawlor an additional week to make discovery of the documents.
Mr Lawlor did deliver documents to the tribunal last Monday night. These documents, the TD's solicitors told the tribunal, met the terms of the High Court order. He also attended at the tribunal last Tuesday and the tribunal adjourned the matter for a week.
