The High Court has begun hearing an action by the Mahon Tribunal against Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and the paper's Public Affairs Correspondent Colm Keena.
The tribunal has applied for an order compelling them to reveal the source of an article published in the paper last year relating to payments made to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the early 1990s.
The court proceedings were brought after Ms Kennedy and Mr Keena refused to answer questions at the Tribunal about the source of a copy of a letter viewed by them before an article was published last September.
Geraldine Kennedy previously told the Tribunal she had destroyed documents relating to the story and had instructed Colm Keena to do likewise.
In evidence last September, she said she had destroyed the documents not out of disrespect for the Tribunal but out of a journalist's obligation to protect his or her sources.
The document in question was a copy of a letter sent by the Tribunal to businessman David McKenna in June 2006 seeking information about a payment made to the Taoiseach when he was Minister for Finance in 1993.
A barrister for the Tribunal today told the High Court that the original letter had been marked 'private and confidential'.
He said the High Court proceedings were partly brought to vindicate the right of the Tribunal to establish that none of its officials were the source of the leaked document.
He said the Tribunal utterly rejected the suggestion that it had been the source of the leak.
He suggested that the implication of statements made by the Taoiseach suggested that the leak had come from Dublin Castle.
Tribunal concerns
The Mahon Tribunal argues that much could be learned if Geraldine Kennedy and Colm Keena answer questions about whether an official harp and a signature of a Tribunal official were on the copy letter they viewed.
The High Court was told that if it could be established that a harp and signature were on the leaked document, this would suggest it was leaked by someone outside the Tribunal, as only a carbon copy of the original letter without harp and signature is kept by the Tribunal and only one person has access to that.
The Court heard that the Mahon Tribunal is greatly concerned that it has been 'fingered' by suggestions in the public domain that it was the source of the leak.
Both Geraldine Kennedy and Colm Keena have refused to answer questions about the letter.
In previous correspondence, Ms Kennedy told the Tribunal that the copied letter had been unsolicited and anonymous.
The hearing continues before a Divisional Court of three Judges - Mr Justice Richard Johnson, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, and Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill.
