Given everything else on its plate, reform of the tribunal process probably doesn’t feature too strongly on the government’s to-do list. It should. The Moriarty tribunal has cost €38m since its inception in 1997, made multi-millionaires of its lead lawyers and, even though its final witness is due to appear on November 20, there is still no end in sight.

Asked last week to indicate when the findings of Justice Moriarty might be published, the taoiseach assured the Dail that early January was the likely date. No sooner had Brian Cowen given this assurance than “sources close to the tribunal” were quoted as saying that this publication date was “completely unrealistic”.

Regardless of when the report appears, nobody really cares any more what it finally concludes. In the first place, the suspense is gone. We know the ending. Denis O’Brien, the telecoms billionaire whose success in winning the country’s first private mobile-phone licence in 1996 has been at the centre of the inquiry, has revealed Moriarty’s preliminary findings in this newspaper. Mr O’Brien told us that the tribunal has found that he acted unlawfully. Even before that revelation, we reported that the tribunal’s draft findings had criticised civil servants from a number of departments who were involved in the licensing process. We also reported that the same civil servants had threatened to seek a judicial review of the tribunal if the government failed to have certain findings overturned.

A minimum of 13 years will have elapsed by the time Justice Moriarty makes his final report, but the wait could be even longer if Mr O’Brien’s legal team poses more objections to the tribunal’s modus operandi. When the report finally emerges and the lawyers have returned to the Four Courts laden down with their enormous earnings, the public will be left with the realisation that Justice Moriarty’s findings really don’t count for much. They have no legal basis and cannot be used in any proceedings that disaffected parties might wish to take. Mr O’Brien’s enemies will use any negative findings to cause him embarrassment but he has long since cashed in on his successful mobile-phone bid and has earned huge sums from other ventures. Meanwhile, Tipperary North will no doubt re-elect Michael Lowry, the minister who awarded the licence, no matter what Moriarty’s conclusions are.

In short, the final report may prove a one-week wonder. Would that the same could have been said about the tribunal itself.

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