The High Court has refused John Delaney’s application to exclude the media from a hearing to determine whether legal privilege exists in relation to certain emails.

Emails belonging to the former Chief Executive of the FAI were seized as part of an investigation into the association.

Last year, more than 250,000 files were seized by Gardaí working with the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement as part of their investigation into the FAI.

John Delaney has claimed legal privilege over thousands of seized emails.

The Waterford native left his role as the association's executive vice-president in September 2019.

The court will have to decide whether that privilege exists. If it does, then the details contained within won’t be allowed to enter the public domain.

With that in mind, his lawyers applied for the hearing to be held in private.

To decide on whether privilege exists, the material would have to be opened for the judge, thereby defeating the purpose of the legal protection, if one is found to apply

Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds previously said that justice has to be “open and transparent”.

On Tuesday, she said it seemed to her that if there is a question mark over a document, then that can be flagged in advance so as not to compromise it.

As such, she refused Mr Delaney’s application for an in-camera hearing but said it could be reviewed again at a later stage.

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