Tribunal deferred as fresh material delivered

Today's sitting of the Flood tribunal has been postponed following the delivery of a large amount of new information from one of the building firms at the centre of the inquiry, Bovale Developments.

The tribunal has been deferred until Monday next, at the request of Mr James Gogarty's legal team.

The tribunal announced it had received "voluminous additional information" yesterday, which was followed by the request from Mr Gogarty.

The announcement does not state who supplied the information, but The Irish Times has established it was supplied by Bovale Developments.

Cross-examination of Mr Gogarty by Mr Colm Allen SC, counsel for Mr Michael and Mr Thomas Bailey of Bovale Developments, was to have got under way today.

Mr Allen has already promised Mr Gogarty a "big ambush" is his cross-examination and there was speculation last night the new information supplied contained the basis for the cross-examination.

But one source said the information was "not necessarily" the basis of the cross-examination and maintained what had been delivered to the tribunal was material which had been sought for some time.

Mr Gogarty has already been given almost a week off by Mr Justice Flood, in order to prepare for his cross-examination by Mr Allen. While Mr Gogarty's health has, in the main, been holding up well, he told Mr Justice Flood he cannot get to sleep "with the crowd I have to deal with here".

Ultimately, Mr Justice Flood decided to allow Mr Gogarty until today because he wanted to give him a rest, but also because "almost equally important at the moment is that there are some documents that are due to be here on Monday morning, and I want an opportunity to circulate those documents and to have the situation ready as of Thursday morning to proceed".