Labour Party TD Mr Brendan Howlin and Fine Gael Senator Mr Jim Higgins have initiated a High Court challenge to a Morris tribunal ruling directing them to provide the inquiry with confidential information which they received regarding alleged Garda corruption.
Mr Justice O'Neill yesterday gave both men leave to apply, by way of judicial review, for an order quashing a decision of the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Morris, directing them to produce the information in their possession, including their telephone records.
The Morris tribunal is inquiring into complaints concerning some gardaí in the Co Donegal division.
The judge also yesterday granted a stay against Eircom plc which prevents it from handing over the telephone records of the two public representatives to the Morris tribunal until the High Court proceedings being taken by them are decided.
He joined both Houses of the Oireachtas and their Committees on Procedure and Privileges along with Eircom as notice parties in the proceedings. The matter was adjourned to April 8th next.
The issues before the tribunal concern allegations in documents received by fax by Senator Higgins on June 25th, 2000 and information received in a telephone call by Mr Howlin on the same date, to the effect that two senior gardaí "may have acted with impropriety".
Last month, the tribunal ordered both politicians to discover all documentation together with telephone records received by them between June 25th, 2000 and July 4th, 2000 which would have revealed the sources of their information.
Yesterday, Mr Gerard Hogan SC, for Senator Higgins, said both politicians were claiming absolute privilege over their sources.
It was sacrosanct that a member of the public could be assured of confidentiality, if required, by a public representative when passing on information touching on a matter of public interest to that representative, he said.
Mr Hogan said both men were Dáil Deputies in 2000 when they received a communication which contained serious allegations against members of the gardaí.
Within two days they passed that information to the then minister for justice. They had no means of knowing whether the contents of the documents were true.
Counsel argued the tribunal's order was contrary to Article 15 (10) of the Constitution, which stated that each House of the Oireachtas would make its own rules and standing orders and "shall have power to ensure freedom of debate, to protect its official documents and the private papers of its members, and to protect itself and its members against any person or persons interfering with, molesting or attempting to corrupt its members in the exercise of their duties".