The former Fianna Fail TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, will not be appearing before the Flood Tribunal today, although he risks having a warrant issued for his arrest for non-attendance.
Sources close to Mr Lawlor confirmed last night that the Dublin West Deputy will not be turning up at Dublin Castle this morning on foot of a formal summons from the tribunal.
His solicitors yesterday furnished the tribunal with a detailed response to the summons, to appear before it to answer questions on bank account holdings and transactions.
It is understood that Mr Lawlor intends playing golf this morning. Failure to obey a tribunal summons is a criminal offence under Section 3 of the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) (Amendment) Act 1979. The maximum penalty is £10,000 or two years in jail, or both.
There has been extensive correspondence between the tribunal and Mr Lawlor's legal team recently. The tribunal's decision to call Mr Lawlor is unusual, because it is currently hearing evidence from a long list of witnesses regarding the awarding of a licence to Century Radio.
Mr Lawlor, who resigned from Fianna Fail last June after a party inquiry accused him of being unco-operative and contradictory, has launched several legal challenges to the right of the tribunal to inquire into his affairs or to compel him to appear.
Mr Frank Dunlop told the tribunal last April that he handed more than £40,000 in cash in a plastic bag to Mr Lawlor in 1991. This has been denied by Mr Lawlor, who told the Fianna Fail inquiry that he received about £40,000 in consultancy fees later in the 1990s.
Mr Dunlop has also alleged he made two separate donations totalling £8,500 to Mr Lawlor in April and May 1991.
Mr Lawlor told the Fianna Fail inquiry that he recollected getting a contribution of about £4,000. In total, he said he received more than £10,000 from Mr Dunlop.
Over the summer the tribunal wrote to financial institutions throughout the State in search of accounts held by Mr Lawlor.