Even by the standards of the tribunal's short but colourful history so far, the joust between Mr James Gogarty and Mr Colm Allen is shaping up to be a bitter little war.
The two were trading insults by the dozen in Dublin Castle yesterday, to the amusement of the public and the dismay of the chairman.
Mr Allen, senior counsel for the developers Michael and Thomas Bailey, repeatedly branded the witness a liar, and Mr Gogarty was happy to return the compliment.
Later, he extended his criticism to solicitors, whom he described as "worse than any bloody criminals in the country". Mr Justice Flood brought matters to a premature end and Mr Gogarty left the witness-box to a round of applause from the gallery.
Once again, Mr Gogarty had the best lines since Oscar Wilde, even if the octogenarian's grasp of music is a little shaky. "The truth is out there," he declared at one point, "just like in that famous song. The answer is flowing in the wind."
On another occasion, accused of "traducing" Mr Charles Haughey, he responded: "Just go over to the other tribunal and you will find all of that."
Caught between a legal team that will reveal virtually nothing of its clients' story and a truculent witness who will concede nothing, the tribunal finds itself in a difficult, even dangerous, position.
Yesterday's hearing was brilliant theatre, but it was also demeaning and largely pointless.
How is justice served by dragging in yet more names against whom uncorroborated allegations have been made? While the search to uncover chinks in Mr Gogarty's armour continues, it's hard to see what difference this will make to the final report.
The latest names to pop up were the Taoiseach and Mr Charles Haughey. Mr Allen read from a draft statement Mr Gogarty prepared in 1997, in which he related what Mr Michael Bailey allegedly told him during meetings about the sale of the Murphy lands in north county Dublin.
"[Michael Bailey said] he was a major contributor to Charles Haughey and Ray Burke. They controlled the Fianna Fail vote on the council and had a good lieutenant in Bertie Ahern," the statement read. Curiously, the same document was leaked to a Sunday newspaper last weekend.
Mr Allen wanted to know why Mr Ahern and Mr Haughey were not mentioned in Mr Gogarty's later, sworn affidavit or in his evidence to the tribunal. The inclusion of the politicians in the earlier document was a "deliberate, vicious and nasty" lie, he suggested.
Mr Gogarty pointed to a clause in his affidavit which asserted that this was a summary in which there might be omissions which could be elaborated upon later. His lawyer pointed out that the names of the two politicians had been removed on legal advice.
The name of the former Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, also appears in the statement but not in the later affidavit, Mr Allen pointed out.
Wild and unsupported as the allegations by Mr Gogarty about the three politicians might seem - for example, Mr Ahern never sat on Dublin County Council - it's worth noting that only through Mr Allen's intervention have they seen the light of day.
But Mr Allen clearly wrong-footed the witness on the issue of the rezoning of the Murphy lands. Mr Gogarty told a TD in 1997 that 450 acres of the 700 acres sold to the Baileys had been rezoned. On Monday, he said he arrived at this figure after visiting the lands by car with his son.
However, Mr Allen pointed to evidence given by the witness last month, in which he said he learned this information from "general knowledge at the time". And on another occasion, he said in evidence that "I didn't bother me head afterwards what happened to the lands".
Just how much of the 700 acres sold to the Baileys in 1989 have been developed since is in dispute, but the tribunal believes the total is less than 100 acres.
The Baileys believe this eloquently refutes Mr Gogarty's allegation that they had the power to push rezonings through Dublin County Council.
But Mr Gogarty stuck to his guns yesterday. The status of the lands had changed dramatically, he insisted: "You won't find a pig or a potato or a cow on any of those lands".
And he accused Mr Michael Bailey of having "inside information" about the lands. Three months before he bought them, Mr Bailey put a value of £16 million on the lands, Mr Gogarty claimed. Mr Bailey eventually paid £2.3 million for the lands.
In his evidence, Mr Gogarty said his first meeting with Mr Bailey was arranged by Mr Joseph Murphy senior. However, Mr Allen said yesterday that Mr Bailey would give evidence that he never met Mr Murphy senior.
Mr Gogarty's version is supported somewhat by a letter he wrote to Mr Murphy senior in June 1989, in which he notes that Mr Murphy and Mr Bailey had had discussions about the lands.