The former Dublin assistant county manager, Mr George Redmond, is tomorrow expected to seek a further postponement of his trial on corruption charges.
The long-delayed trial of Mr Redmond (78) on four charges of corruption in office is scheduled to start in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Monday.
However, his legal team are expected to argue in court tomorrow that it should be stopped or postponed because of unfair media publicity.
The retired planning official was named as an associate of the controversial businessman Mr Jim Kennedy in a recent edition of Primetime on RTÉ television.
Last October, he lost a High Court bid to prevent his trial from proceeding, and later decided not to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
However, Mr Justice Kearns said any further publication of salacious or prejudicial material, either about the impending trial or about Mr Redmond, would leave open to Mr Redmond the possibility of making a further application for postponement or prohibition of the trial.
Mr Justice Kearns said it would be possible for the trial judge, before empanelling any jury, to warn that no person should serve who felt that, because of the publicity, they could not deal fairly with the case.
This course was alluded to during Catherine Nevin's recent appeal against her murder conviction, where the judge first asked jurors if they were able to bring an impartial mind to the case.
The judge appointed to hear the Redmond case, Justice Michael White, may decide to issue jury instructions at tomorrow's pre-trial hearing. But even if he decides the trial should go ahead, it is unlikely to start as scheduled next week.
Two of the charges Mr Redmond faces relate to the sale of land by the council in Palmerstown and two concern the compulsory purchase by it of land at Buzzardstown and Coolmine.
It is alleged that he received a gift of money as an inducement or reward in relation to the sale of a strip of land at Palmerstown. He is also charged with corruptly receiving money as an inducement or reward for doing, or forbearing to do, anything about the compulsory purchase order on the Buzzardstown lands.
It is almost four years since Mr Redmond gave evidence to the Flood tribunal about the large sums of money he received from developers and other businessmen during his 40-year career in public service.
