Mahon tribunal: The planning tribunal is facing further delays after solicitor Mr John Caldwell announced his intention to bring High Court proceedings against the inquiry.
Mr Caldwell believes the current hearings into a series of land deals he was involved in with Mr Jim Kennedy and Mr Liam Lawlor should not go ahead.
Yesterday, his lawyers said their client had "no option" but to go to the High Court after the tribunal refused to hear them argue why the hearings should not take place.
At the start of the proceedings, Mr Ian Finlay SC, for Mr Caldwell, asked to be allowed make submissions on the matter. If this were not allowed, he said, Mr Caldwell would be left with no alternative but to apply to the High Court for a judicial review.
Last month, Judge Alan Mahon ruled that persons due to give evidence before the tribunal were not entitled to make submissions as to why their particular interests should not undergo public investigation.
Yesterday, Judge Mahon said the tribunal's position was clear. It had earlier told Mr Finlay that a substantial part of his written submission could not be made orally. That remained the position of the inquiry. Mr Finlay said his client, who was present, would "with great regret" be applying to the court for a judicial review at the first opportunity.
Earlier this week, the tribunal began hearings into a land deal at Coolamber, Lucan, which involved Mr Lawlor, Mr Kennedy and Mr Caldwell.
This is the first of six "inter-linked" transactions involving the three men, which the tribunal proposes to investigate.
Tribunal lawyers are investigating the possibility that the same ownership pattern - including the concealed involvement of Mr Lawlor - could have applied to other lands at Carrickmines. These lands were the subject of tribunal hearings over the past two years arising from allegations that councillors were bribed to secure their rezoning.
Mr Lawlor also complained yesterday about the tribunal's decision to proceed with the Coolamber hearings. Apart from arranging the finance from Mr Larry Goodman for buying the land, he had no role, he told the tribunal.
He said he withdrew from the meeting of Dublin County Council at which the rezoning of Coolamber was voted upon. "I, at all times, was very clear in my responsibilities under the local government and ethics Acts." According to Mr Lawlor, the planning application for Coolamber and the lobbying of councillors was carried out by the purchaser, builder Mr Joe Tiernan, and had "nothing whatsoever" to do with him, Mr Caldwell or Mr Kennedy.
"I seriously question the relevance of continuing to trawl the interest [ allegedly held by me], in whatever guise, when the truth and the facts are in the possession of the tribunal." Mr Lawlor said it had been "absolutely established" at the end of the Carrickmines module that he had "nothing whatsoever" to do with the those lands. Later, Mr Stewart Harrington, a property valuer and former partner of Harrington Bannon, told the tribunal he heard Mr Kennedy had "huge political clout".
Mr Harrington, who represented the Tyrrell family that sold the Coolamber lands to an offshore company in 1987, said he didn't know where he had heard this but it might have come from the family.
