Morris tribunal:An application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to have a module of the Morris tribunal heard behind closed doors was an attempt to block off the eyes and ears of the public, a barrister for the inquiry into Garda corruption said today.
Senior counsel Peter Charleton told tribunal chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris that the press, in reporting on courts and tribunals, acted as the eyes and ears of the public, and that in seeking to have the module held in private, the DPP "asks you to block off those ears and shut those eyes."
Barrister Paul Anthony McDermott, on behalf of the DPP, argued that the Burnfoot module, which will inquire into the arrests of seven people following the discovery of a shotgun on a Traveller site, would be in effect a "dry run" of a criminal trial on the same issue, and would prejudice potential jurors.
The Tribunals of Inquiry Act was amended in 2002 to allow a tribunal to sit in closed session "where there is a risk of prejudice to criminal proceedings", he said.
Mr McDermott said the legal position was that the issue was already sub judice, as "the sub-judice rule in Ireland begins at the moment a person is charged". Sgt John White was charged in connection with the Burnfoot incident in June 2001.
Senior counsel John Whelan, for Sgt White, said his client's application was that the module should be held in the open, but not until the criminal trial was completed. "He wishes to vindicate his good name in public," Mr Whelan said. "He wants to put before the Irish public his story."
However, he argued that his client would be damaged if the tribunal held the module before the criminal trial, whether in open or closed session, as Sgt White would be compelled to testify, and to reveal his defence.
Mr Whelan argued that to ask Sgt White to give evidence before his criminal trial was an infringement of his constitutional right to silence.
The chairman will deliver his decision on Friday morning.