Lawyers seek further details from Lawlor

Lawyers for the Flood tribunal will seek to have Mr Liam Lawlor put in the witness box when the High Court completes its review of the TD's co-operation with the tribunal next Monday.

Tribunal lawyers want to question Mr Lawlor about alleged gaps in the documentation he has submitted to Mr Justice Flood, which they claim make it impossible to follow the "money trail" underlying his financial dealings.

The Dublin West TD, who spent a week in jail this year as a result of his non-compliance with the tribunal, has submitted 157 folders of information since January. No fewer than 101 of his bank accounts, in Ireland, the US, Liechtenstein, the Czech Republic and other locations, have come to light.

The tribunal is now largely satisfied with the information he has supplied regarding his bank accounts in Ireland; most of the hitherto missing information related to loans taken out for college fees and insurance costs for his family, it seems.

However, in other aspects, there is far less clarity. There is a "significant dearth" of documents explaining how Mr Lawlor settled his crippling financial debts in the mid-1990s.

At the time, Mr Lawlor says, his financial situation was "dire" and the ACC bank was threatening to foreclose on a large loan on his home in Lucan. His financial adviser, Mr Luke Mooney, "horse-traded" with the banks to achieve a suitable outcome and he sold 23 acres around the house "at a 90 per cent discount".

Mr Lawlor sought documentation from 272 parties with which he had financial dealings but, curiously, Mr Mooney was not one of them. This, he says, is because Mr Mooney had already given him all the documentation in his possession.

The tribunal wants to know more about the Mooney connection, and why no records have been provided. And it wants to know more about a Mr Nicholas Morgan, a Jersey-based lawyer who lent the TD more than £600,000 at this time.

According to Mr Lawlor, he was introduced to Mr Morgan by a mutual friend in the UK. Mr Morgan was a potential investor in projects Mr Lawlor was advancing in the Czech Republic in partnership with developer Mr Phil Monahan and architect Mr Ambrose Kelly. However, these transactions did not happen as quickly as anticipated, Mr Lawlor says, and his financial woes increased.

It now appears the TD has eight accounts in Liechtenstein, instead of the single account the tribunal believed he had. However, the tribunal is unable to ascertain in whose name these accounts are held.