The Supreme Court has begun hearing an application by convicted drug dealer John Gilligan and his family to try to stop the Criminal Assets Bureau selling three properties.
CAB seized an eight-bedroom house at Jessbrook, Co Kildare and two houses in west Dublin 20 years ago.
Gilligan, his son Darren and his daughter Tracy are each represented by a Queens Counsel and two barristers from the UK.
His lawyers are seeking to overturn previous court orders including Supreme Court orders.
They are also appealing under the European Convention of Human Rights.
The case is being heard by five Supreme Court judges presided over by Chief Justice Ms Susan Denham.
At the beginning of the hearing, the Chief Justice told Gilligan’s legal team that the papers for the case were in "a disgraceful state" and had "greatly increased the work of the court".
Gilligan's lawyers told the court that the original court order of December 1996, upon which CAB relied, did not comply with the law because oral evidence should have been given at the time but was not.
Ben Ó Floinn, counsel for CAB, described Gilligan's application as an "Alice through the looking glass" appeal that was dealing with issues that had already been decided years ago by the High Court and the Supreme Court.
The hearing continues.
