The Moriarty tribunal has resumed hearings in Dublin Castle this morning, with lawyers delivering a lengthy opening statement on the upcoming phase of the inquiry.
The tribunal is continuing its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the award of the second mobile phone licence to the Esat Digifone consortium in 1996.
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Mr Michael Lowry and Mr Denis O'Brien
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The tribunal is investigating a number of political contributions made by Mr Denis O'Brien, the main force behind Esat Digifone, during 1995.
It has been sitting in private for the past year, interviewing dozens of witnesses and sifting through thousands of pages of documents.
Last year, the tribunal heard evidence about a number of financial transactions that linked Mr O'Brien to Fine Gael Minister for Communications at the time, Mr Michael Lowry.
Mr O'Brien has denied any knowledge of any transactions that personally benefited Mr Lowry. He did tell the tribunal, however, that he had considered giving Mr Lowry money but had dismissed it as "mad" idea.
Mr Lowry denies receiving any payments in return for favours.
The State could be sued for hundreds of millions of euros by the losing bidders for the licence if the tribunal finds the competition was tainted.