The Flood tribunal could face further significant delays in its investigation into planning corruption if it loses a crucial Supreme Court appeal today.
The tribunal would no longer be able to compel people to attend for interview before its lawyers if the court decides to uphold the High Court's decision in a case brought by the Fianna Fail TD, Mr Liam Lawlor.
Such cases would then have to be heard in public session before the chairman, Mr Justice Flood, at far greater expense and time requirement.
However, a Supreme Court victory for the tribunal would be seen as a significant endorsement of the way it has deployed its lawyers to conduct investigations, and would inhibit further legal challenges.
In existence for 20 months, the tribunal has had 77 days of public hearings. Costs to mid-May were almost £3.5 million; this does not include the legal fees of parties represented at the tribunal.
The Lawlor decision is being watched closely by other parties currently the subject of allegations before the tribunal. Legal sources say it could result in knock-on challenges by parties who feel they are being treated unfairly.
A separate legal battle between the tribunal and the Criminal Assets Bureau is set to resume behind closed doors in Dublin Castle today. Mr Justice Flood is being asked to rule on whether the CAB has privilege over the documents it seized from the former assistant Dublin city and county manager, Mr George Redmond, when he was arrested.
The bureau chief, Chief Supt Fachtna Murphy, repeated his claim for privilege over the documents from the witness-box of the tribunal yesterday. He brought two sealed cardboard boxes containing copies of Mr Redmond's files but said he would not be furnishing them to the tribunal.
Information received by the CAB before they arrested Mr Redmond had "thrown a totally different light on the previous Garda investigation and the reasons why there hadn't been a prosecution", Chief Supt Murphy said. Mr Redmond was questioned in the course of a 1989 investigation into planning corruption, which proved inconclusive. An investigation in 1997 foundered when Mr James Gogarty refused to swear an affidavit.
Mr Murphy said he was acting under directions of the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne.
When Mr Murphy was asked when the CAB's investigation into Mr Redmond began, the bureau's lawyers demanded that the hearing go into private session. Mr Justice Flood agreed to this.
Mr Redmond was arrested and charged last Friday with failing to make tax returns over 10 years.
Earlier this year Mr Lawlor applied successfully to the High Court to quash two orders of the tribunal directing him to appear before tribunal lawyers in private session to answer questions and swear an affidavit detailing any companies in which he had an interest between 1987 and 1994.
The High Court refused his application to overturn a third tribunal order directing him to discover documents made to him by a property company, Arlington Securities plc, and the developer, Mr Tom Gilmartin, as well as Mr Lawlor's bank and building society accounts.
The developer, Mr Michael Bailey, continued his evidence to the tribunal yesterday afternoon. Mr Bailey said Mr Gogarty demanded an additional £25,000 in interest on top of a finder's fee of £150,000 for setting up the Murphy land deal. A final settlement was reached between the two in June 1996, after Mr Gogarty threatened to implicate the Baileys in media investigations into planning irregularities.
