Tribunal to oppose Lawlor call to have judge removed

Lawyers for the Flood Tribunal will today oppose Mr Liam Lawlor's High Court application to have Mr Justice Thomas Smyth removed from hearing a case against him. The West Dublin TD could face jail if the court rules that he has not co-operated with the tribunal.

Mr Lawlor called yesterday on Mr Justice Smyth to step aside from the case because of his involvement a decade ago with a property company which opposed the rezoning of Quarryvale, which Mr Lawlor supported.

In 1991, as a senior counsel, Mr Justice Smyth wrote a legal opinion for Green Property, which was developing a shopping centre at Blanchardstown. Green threatened not to go ahead with Blanchardstown unless the rival development at Quarryvale was stopped or reduced in size.

Before yesterday's hearing Mr John Rogers SC approached Mr Justice Smyth in private to express his client's belief that the judge had an apparent conflict of interest in hearing the case. After a delay of over two hours, the case went ahead.

During the hearing, Mr Justice Smyth said he had "absolutely no recollection" of the opinion, but he accepted the document produced.

Mr Rogers also announced that his client intended to comply with the court order for him to produce financial documents to the tribunal.

Mr Lawlor is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court if another High Court judge is not appointed to his case.

According to Mr Lawlor, Green Property was an "inevitable protagonist" in the inquiries before the tribunal. The company was at the heart of the dispute over the rezoning of Quarryvale.

Mr Justice Smyth's order last October for Mr Lawlor to co-operate with the tribunal could be expected to result in the TD giving evidence in which the judge's former clients had an "intimate and controversial involvement," Mr Lawlor argued.

The dispute between the promoters of the rival shopping centres at Blanchardstown and Quarryvale dominated local politics in west Dublin in the early 1990s. Mr Lawlor and 11 councillors who supported the Quarryvale rezoning lost their seats in the 1991 local elections.

Mr Lawlor's evidence to the tribunal came to an abrupt end shortly before Christmas after he refused to answer questions about his credit card accounts. Mr Justice Flood stood him down as a witness and said it was a matter for the High Court.