A Supreme Court appeal by Mr Denis O'Brien to prevent the Moriarty tribunal from holding a public hearing into the businessman's purchase of English football club Doncaster Rovers is unlikely to be heard before October 20th, it emerged today.
Mr O'Brien appealed to the Supreme Court after the High Court's refusal to prevent the tribunal from gathering evidence regarding his 1998 purchase of the club.
In last week's High Court ruling Mr Justice Herbert said he would justify his refusal of the application in writing, at a later date. Counsel for both sides have since said that the judgment must be made available before they can formulate their submissions for a Supreme Court appeal.
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Murray, said that October 20th may be available for the Supreme Court to hear the appeal, provided Justice Herbert's written judgment had been made available to both counsels.
The issue arose in the Moriarty Tribunal after there were allegations that former Fine Gael Transport Minister had some involvement in Mr O'Brien's purchase of the club.
Counsel for Mr O'Brien had argued that there was no justification for such a hearing and that documents already supplied to the tribunal clearly indicated that no payments were made to Mr Lowry.