BOVALE Developments Ltd and its directors, Mr Thomas Bailey and his wife Caroline, have failed in their Supreme Court at tempt to stop the Flood tribunal investigating their financial affairs in public.
They have been told by the tribunal that the proposed examination might be relevant to an alleged payment to former Fianna Fail minister Mr Ray Burke in June 1989. The property company and the Baileys had asked for their financial affairs to be investigated in private in the first instance, claiming this would give the tribunal the opportunity to get the material it was seeking and at the same time protect the rights of the company and its directors.
The tribunal's decision to hear the matter in public was rejected by the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Morris, in February. Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the appeal brought by the Baileys and Bovale against the High Court decision.
Ms Justice Denham said the constitutional right of the Baileys and Bovale to privacy was beyond debate. It was also well established that this was not an ab solute right but one which must be weighed against or balanced with the common good.
That might require that matters, resolved by the Oireachtas to be of public importance, be inquired into by the tribunal. It was the essence of such tribunals that the inquiries be held in public, otherwise public disquiet, which led to the appointment of the tribunal, could not be allayed.
The Baileys argued that their evidence should be heard by the tribunal in private and, if it was established that the evidence was relevant or material, the hearing could be repeated in public. Ms Justice Denham said such a decision fell to the tribunal itself.