Mr Liam Lawlor has apologised in the High Court to the Flood Tribunal for the "inadequacy" of the discovery of documents to the Tribunal, according to Mr Frank Clarke SC for the Flood Tribunal.
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Liam Lawlor
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Mr Lawlor, according to Mr Clarke, apologised for the inadequacies in a new affadavit submitted to the High Court today and said he was putting together a comprehensive affidavit for the Flood Tribunal containing documents that have not been discovered to date.
Mr Lawlor's contempt hearing revolves around three issues which arise from a court order of October 24 in which Mr Justice Thomas Smyth order Mr Lawlor to discover all documents of all his financial affairs since the 1970's to the Flood Tribunal
The principal tenets of the order were: i) Mr Lawlor allow discovery of all his financial documents ii) that he attend the Flood Tribunal and hand over all the documents in question iii) that he answer in public any question arising from those documents.
On all three counts, Mr Clarke said, Mr Lawlor had failed to comply with the original order.
He had, Mr Clarke continued, failed to allow discovery of 36 different categories of documents.
He had also, according to Mr Clarke, made "little attempt if any" to obtain documents from people who were acting from him and had refused to answer questions regarding his financial affairs in the Czech Republic.
The question to be answered, therefore, said Mr Clarke, was whether Mr Lawlor was in breach of the order and what is to be done in the case where there has been a breach.
In reply, Mr John Rogers SC for Mr Lawlor said that while "there's no doubt that there were moments when Mr Lawlor was recalcitrant" in his dealings with the Flood Tribunal he asked the court to consider "certain mental attitude changes" contained within the new affidavit.
Mr Smyth said he would read all relevant documents tonight, in particular Mr Lawlor's new affidavit and that he would hear further argument tomorrow.