The future of the High Court review of Liam Lawlor's dealings with the Flood Tribunal is in jeopardy this evening. Lawyers for the TD have claimed the court no longer had any jurisdiction in the matter.
In a surprise twist, Mr Lawlor's lawyers argued that the time limit on the original sentence had run out. It is a year since Mr Justice Thomas Smyth first sentenced Liam Lawlor to three months in jail for failure to co-operate with the Flood Tribunal.
Mr Lawlor spent one week behind bars then; the rest of the sentence was suspended until November to give the TD time to meet the Tribunal's requirements. But November has come and gone and now Mr Lawlor's lawyers are arguing that it is now too late to invoke the remainder of that sentence.
They say the Tribunal had ample time to go back to the court before that deadline to have the time limit extended, but they had not done so. Last July, Liam Lawlor was again ordered to serve another week of his sentence but no mention was made of the remainder of the sentence.
The court no longer has the power to jail the TD in these proceedings, they say. Both sides have been asked to consider their positions overnight and make submissions on the matter tomorrow.
Earlier, the court heard that it was not credible for Liam Lawlor to suggest he had failed to recollect the existence of a number of Irish bank accounts. The details of the bank accounts were only revealed to the Tribunal recently.
On the second day before the High Court, Tribunal lawyers argued that the TD's recent actions had shown an "unfortunate unpreparedness" to be pro-active about matters. Referring to these bank accounts, Tribunal lawyers said that they contained a significant number of large lodgements, one of which was from Thomas Roche of the National Toll Roads.
The lawyers said that the accounts concerned matters, which were potentially of significance to the Tribunal. Tribunal lawyers told the Court yesterday that there was a continuing failure on the part of the Dublin West TD to meet his obligations to the inquiry.
They outlined nine areas where Mr Lawlor had failed to provide them with sufficient information. Mr Lawlor insists he has done everything possible to provide the Tribunal with all the documentation he can. Mr Lawlor submitted another document to the court yesterday morning. His lawyers say that the allegations made by the Tribunal are refuted in this affidavit.
