The High Court will give its decision next week on an application by Shannon Foynes port company chief executive Brian Byrne and a non-executive director of the company, Morgan Leahy, for an order restraining an investigation into allegations made against them by a Limerick haulier.

Mr Byrne has claimed the investigation into allegations by haulier Brian Cosgrave was motivated by "a conspiracy" to derail the Limerick Docklands Initiative.

Mr Paul Gardiner SC, for both men, argued yesterday that the investigation process was so tainted by factors, including "secret contacts" between the port company board and the investigation committee, that it was "totally irrecoverable".

However, Mr Gerard Hogan SC, for the company, submitted Mr Gardiner had failed to show the investigation committee process was so tainted that the court was required to intervene and he urged the judge to allow the investigation proceed.

Submissions in the case concluded yesterday afternoon and Mr Justice Frank Clarke said he would need time to consider the issues raised.

Saying he was conscious the matter was urgent, he said he would deliver judgment on January 24th next.

In the interim, both sides are to exchange legal documents necessary for the full hearing of the proceedings between them, a date for which has yet to be fixed.

The court has heard that the allegations against Mr Byrne and Mr Leahy were made by Mr Cosgrave on August 26th last year after which the port company board set up a committee - the Guilfoyle committee - to investigate them. Mr Byrne has been suspended by the board pending the investigation.

A separate investigation into other issues has been completed by another committee, the Bugler committee, which has delivered a sealed report pending the outcome of the court action.

Full details of the allegations by Mr Cosgrave have not been outlined in court but Mr Byrne said in an affidavit they were to the effect that he and Mr Leahy had abused their positions to secure personal gain, had orchestrated a vendetta against Mr Cosgrave and had treated him unfairly.

He and Mr Leahy have rejected the claims as malicious and untrue and Mr Byrne said the allegations were part of an attempt by Mr Cosgrave and property developer John Hegarty to derail the Docklands Initiative.

Both men want an injunction - to apply until the outcome of the full proceedings - restraining the investigation into the allegations by the Guilfoyle committee.

They say it has acted unfairly towards them but that they are willing to co-operate with a truly independent investigation.

The company has denied that there has been any unfairness or any improper contact between the committee and the board.

In his closing submissions yesterday, Mr Gardiner said that Mr Hogan was simply wrong in asserting there was no "massive animus" (enmity) between a Limerick firm of solicitors which acted for the company - Holmes O'Malley Sexton - and Mr Byrne.

The Guilfoyle committee itself also had not come to court to reassure his clients that its investigation was independent and this left the court to speculate about exactly what had gone on between the committee and the board, counsel said.

The board's chairman, Mr Kieran McSweeney, had said in an affidavit that he did not know exactly which board members had appeared before the committee.

His clients were left in a position where the question of how management concerns had been put before the committee was left completely unexplained.