Garda challenges findings of Disclosures Tribunal

A Donegal-based Garda has initiated High Court proceedings seeking to overturn findings made against him by the Disclosures Tribunal. Garda Keith Harrison challenges the tribunal's reports on grounds of alleged prior professional contact between tribunal chair Mr Justice Peter Charleton and a key witness, Chief Superintendent Terry McGinn. The alleged connection arose when McGinn served as Garda liaison to the Morris Tribunal between 2002 and 2005, when Justice Charleton was Senior Counsel to that inquiry. Harrison's legal representatives submitted correspondence to the Disclosures Tribunal requesting the reports be set aside, a request the tribunal rejected as "absurd and repugnant". Harrison seeks orders quashing findings from the tribunal's second and third interim reports, prohibiting further publication of relevant sections, and declaring the judge in breach of natural and constitutional justice rights. Permission to bring the action was granted on an ex parte basis by Mr Justice Seamus Noonan at the High Court on Monday. The case will return before the courts within two weeks.