Tribunal delayed until June 28th

The flood tribunal, which was to have resumed on Monday, will not now sit until June 28th. Advertisements to this effect will be placed in the national newspapers tomorrow.

The delay has been caused by two High Court actions involving the tribunal which have continued longer than expected. Further delays are not being ruled out.

Because of the delay, the main witnesses, including the former minister for foreign affairs, Mr Ray Burke, are unlikely to be called until next month at the earliest. This means the Dail will have gone into recess before Mr Burke comes to give his evidence.

The High Court challenge brought by Fianna Fail TD Mr Liam Lawlor against an order from the tribunal compelling him to attend for interview is expected to finish today.

Judgment will be delivered on July 2nd, but a Supreme Court challenge to this is likely.

Meanwhile, judgment has been reserved in the second case, involving the Criminal Assets Bureau. The bureau asked the High Court to decide if the tribunal has the power to order it to hand over files it seized from the former assistant Dublin city and county manager, Mr George Redmond.

With the legal holidays beginning at the end of July, there remains the possibility that the evidence of Mr Burke and other witnesses will not be heard until the autumn. When the tribunal resumes, one of the first matters it will have to resolve concerns a controversial affidavit by a former chief executive of the Murphy group, the late Mr Liam Conroy.

The affidavit, filed during an unfair dismissals case in 1989, makes allegations about the tax and financial affairs of Mr Joseph Murphy snr. Attempts by Murphys to prevent the affidavit being opened at the tribunal were rejected in recent weeks by the High Court and the Supreme Court.

Although the way is now clear for the Conroy affidavit to be opened, and for Mr James Gogarty to give evidence on it, lawyers for the Murphy group are expected to argue that other documents which give a conflicting version should also be opened.

The first witnesses to be called will be a former director of the Murphy group, Mr Gay Grehan, and his wife, Dr Mary Grehan. In earlier evidence, Mr Grehan said he knew of a payment by Murphys to Mr Burke only through rumour and hearsay.