A SIPO hearing against Monaghan councillor Hugh McElvaney has been adjourned pending a High Court challenge by his lawyers.
The proceedings follow an RTÉ Investigates programme in December 2015 in which Mr McElvaney was recorded asking for Stg£10,000 to support a wind farm development. Click here to view the programme.
Earlier, the commission rejected a submission by Mr McElvaney’s lawyers that the case should not go ahead without evidence from an undercover reporter identified as Nina Carlson, who posed as a representative of the wind farm company
Mr Justice O'Keefe said Mr McElvaney was not prejudiced by the absence of this evidence.
The chairman said Mr McElvaney had not challenged the validity of the recordings and had publicly stated afterwards that he knew it was a setup, but played along to "show up" RTÉ.
However, Mr McElvaney’s barrister, Breffni Gordon, said he wanted proceedings adjourned so he could appeal that decision to the High Court.
If this was refused, he said his client would refuse to take part.
James Doherty SC, for SIPO, said a complaint had been made and the commission had a duty to hold it up to public scrutiny in a timely manner.
He said proceedings going ahead would not prejudice Mr McElvaney from taking a High Court case.
After a short adjournment, Chairman Mr Justice O’Keefe said he would adjourn proceedings to allow a High Court application to be made "forthwith".
Mr McElvaney is accused of four contraventions of the Local Government Act 2001: that in October and November 2015 he failed to maintain proper standards of integrity as a member of a local authority, that he sought payment for assisting a company, that he failed to comply with the Code of Conduct for Councillors and that he also made an incomplete declaration of interest for the year 2014.
Earlier, Mr Gordon claimed Mr McElvaney was the subject of a "reprehensible" entrapment.
Mr Gordon said the undercover reporter, identified as Nina Carlson, was not available to give evidence and her "continued concealment" by RTÉ's claim of privilege interfered with his clients right to fair procedure.
He said Ms Carlson had told councillor McElvaney that the conversation was confidential and the fact that this breach of trust had been prepared beforehand made it "more reprehensible".
He said the secret recordings were a clear case of entrapment, that there was "distortion" and "spin" and that his client denies he did anything wrong.
Mr Gordon said that simply showing the video as evidence without the opportunity to cross-examine Ms Carlson was like Mr McElvaney giving his evidence by recording a video of himself on his phone and sending it by WhatsApp to the commission.
However, Mr Doherty said that Mr McElvaney had been given an opportunity to challenge the validity of the recordings of the interview, as well as audio recording of telephone calls, and had failed to do so.
Mr Doherty said Mr McElvaney had also failed to highlight any "fact of controversy" in how the interview was conducted and added "that's because there is none".
He said Mr McElvaney's claim of entrapment was difficult to reconcile with his interview reported in the Northern Standard newspaper in which he said he knew the interview was a setup but "played along" to "show up RTÉ".
