Public hearings of the CI╔ rail signalling inquiry may not resume until early next week despite the High Court's lifting of a stay on the proceedings yesterday.
The inquiry could be further held up if an appeal against the lifting of the stay is lodged with the Supreme Court in the coming days.
The six members of the Dβil sub-committee in charge of the inquiry met last night to consider their strategy in view of the interruptions.
The inquiry was due to finish last week and the sub-committee expected to be working on their final report and recommendations by this time but they are already two weeks behind schedule.
The stay, and ongoing judicial review proceedings, were initiated by Mrs Noreen McDonnell, widow of the late Mr Michael McDonnell, a former chief executive of CI╔.
He was to be a witness at the inquiry, which is investigating how a new rail signalling system, needed for safety and efficiency, rose in cost from £14 million to £50 million.
The still unfinished system, known as mini-CTC, is two years behind schedule and one of the two companies contracted to carry out the work has gone into receivership.
The inquiry, by a sub-commit tee of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport, has been examining whether the contractors were correctly chosen to do the job and whether a major cable-laying contract, undertaken by CI╔ for Esat Telecom, disrupted the mini-CTC project.
Before it was halted on October 3rd, the inquiry was due to hear for the first time from consultants who assessed the CI╔-Esat deal and from a number of CI╔ board members who approved the deal.
A number of key witnesses already heard, including former CI╔ head of projects and programmes, Dr Ray Byrne, were also to be recalled.
The sub-committee were also considering a separate legal issue last night, involving their chairman, Mr Sean Doherty TD, who was accused by one witness, Esat founder Mr Denis O'Brien, of being unfit to chair the proceedings because of his involvement in the tapping of journalists' phones in 1982.
Mr Doherty took legal advice after Mr O'Brien's outburst and his refusal to withdraw his remarks.
He took further advice following the decision by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to publicly apologise for the phone-tapping.