The planning tribunal has said it will ask the High Court to order two Irish Times journalists to disclose the source of leaked information relating to payments to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon said yesterday that if the court granted such an order, Irish Times Editor Geraldine Kennedy and public affairs correspondent Colm Keena would be called before the tribunal again and asked about the source of their information.
Last week, Ms Kennedy and Mr Keena refused to answer questions from tribunal lawyers which they felt would help identify the source of the information in the article written by Mr Keena last month. Both journalists, citing the need to protect their sources, told the tribunal they had destroyed the documents on which the article was based, in spite of a tribunal order to produce them.
Judge Mahon warned yesterday that failure to comply fully with an order of the High Court could amount to a contempt of court.
"The primary concern of the tribunal at present is to protect the integrity of its inquiries, and it is of the view that this objective is best served by taking all necessary steps to establish the identity of the party or parties who furnished the documentation to The Irish Times which led to the publication of the article on the 21st September 2006."
Judge Mahon has already warned the two journalists that the penalty for failing to co- operate with the inquiry is a fine of up to €300,000 and/or up to two years in jail.
In his ruling, the chairman said it was abundantly clear that the appropriate forum for airing tribunal information was in the public sessions of the inquiry. Here, the facts could be inquired into in a forensic way by an independent tribunal with no vested interest.
One-sided reporting, without providing a full context, could often be misleading and damaging to the interests of people before the tribunal. It was for this reason that the tribunal had explored every avenue open to it to stop the leaks.
He acknowledged that the tribunal had suffered from leaks since its inception. Some parties sought to make "pre-emptive strikes" against other parties they believed were out to damage them, while others tried to damage the tribunal itself. The people revealing information to the press were motivated by their own private interests rather than the public interest, he said.
Judge Mahon rejected any suggestion that media leaks might have come from the tribunal itself. "Any suggestion that the tribunal was acting to single out or damage the interest of any particular individual or group is without foundation."
He expressed concern that some press coverage had referred to "leaks from the tribunal," thereby implying that the inquiry itself was instrumental in the leak. Any such conduct would be a gross dereliction of duty on the part of the tribunal, he said.
The three tribunal members were all judges and their standards of probity in the tribunal were no lower than those that applied in their work as members of the judiciary. He appealed for anyone who had information suggesting the tribunal itself had leaked confidential information to bring it to his attention.
Mr Keena's article was based on information from a tribunal letter to businessman David McKenna last June. Mr McKenna was one of 12 businessmen found to have made payments to Mr Ahern in 1993 and 1994. Ms Kennedy has told the tribunal the information came from an anonymous, unsolicited leak.
After yesterday's hearing, she said the newspaper had published the information about payments to Mr Ahern because it was in the public interest to do so. Both she and Mr Keena were obliged to protect their sources.
She told journalists she would be studying the ruling.
