The High Court has refused to quash findings in the Mahon Tribunal report concerning Des Richardson and a bank account used in connection with a £5,000 draft that ultimately went to Bertie Ahern.
Richardson challenged parts of paragraphs 4.162 and 4.163 of the Tribunal's final report, published in March 2012. Those passages concerned a Roevin Ireland Limited account opened in October 1992 with £39,000 and later used to fund a £5,000 bank draft payable to Richardson.
The Tribunal had stated that Richardson claimed not to know the source of the £39,000 and had rejected his evidence. It went further, concluding that he probably knew why the account was opened, where the initial money came from and where funds went when the account closed.
Ms Justice Dunne accepted one important point made by Richardson: he had not in fact claimed that he did not know the source of the £39,000. The judgment therefore identified a factual error in the Tribunal's report.
The central issue, however, was whether that error could be corrected through judicial review. Judicial review examines the legality and fairness of a decision-making process; it is not an appeal allowing the court to rehear evidence and substitute its own factual conclusions.
The judge held that Richardson had been questioned extensively about the Roevin account on two occasions and that there had been no breach of fair procedures of the kind that would justify intervention. The challenge was, in substance, directed at part of the Tribunal's factual findings rather than at an unlawful process.
The court also considered complaints that Richardson's grounding affidavit had not fully disclosed other adverse Tribunal findings, including evidence surrounding a fictitious £6,050 invoice used in connection with an NCB Stockbrokers payment. While that lack of candour was relevant, the judge did not regard it as independently decisive.
Judicial review was refused. The court added that the Tribunal would no doubt correct the specific factual error identified.