Feargus Flood,"No explanation given for payments"
The Chairman of the Flood Tribunal has rejected the objections of the Dublin auctioneer, John Finnegan, to questioning of witnesses concerning his professional conduct. Mr Justice Feargus Flood said questions referring to bribery and conflicts of interest were allowable because evidence heard so far made such scenarios a possibility.
After two days of legal argument and lengthy adjournments, the Tribunal returned to its investigation of the precise nature of Mr Finnegan's relationship with the builders Joe McGowan and Tom Brennan.
The Tribunal wants to know why he got hundreds of thousands of pounds from property deals in which he had no financial involvement. Despite persistent questioning, Joe McGowan again failed to shed any light on this. Mr Finnegan's lawyers had argued that the Tribunal had no right to call their client's conduct as an auctioneer into question.
Mr Justice Flood insisted that no comprehensible explanation had been given thus far from the witnesses or Mr Finnegan himself to explain the three men's unusual business relationship.
