Justice Fergus Flood, whose inquiry into Dublin planning scandals emerged triumphantly from the doldrums last month and continues to astonish, will be 72 in July and due to retire. Will the Government let him go? They wouldn't dare. Since Flood was appointed prior to July 1995 he can stay on the bench until he is 72. Judges appointed since have to retire at 70. So come July, he will retire in the normal way, but then be asked to stay on as tribunal chairman by the Government. By way of remuneration, his pension will be topped up to leave him with his current salary as a High Court judge. The way things are going he could be in that happy position for years to come.