The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has revealed that it is claiming privilege over two documents in relation to the ongoing investigation being carried out by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).
The FAI said in a statement released on Tuesday that, on the back of external legal advice, it has sought privilege on two more documents which would mean that they could not be used as part of the ODCE's investigation into the affairs of the FAI.
The ODCE has made a High Court application in relation to two of the 10,048 documents handed over by Irish football's governing body last week.
"To date, the FAI has produced tens of thousands of documents to the ODCE, including 40,000 in a production three weeks ago. Privilege was not sought over any of those 40,000 documents," reads the FAI statement.
"A previous privilege request regarding 14 passages, contained in a total of 16 documents, was upheld by the High Court earlier this year.
"To date, the FAI has sought privilege on 16 documents in total from the tens of thousands submitted to the ODCE. The FAI continues to co-operate fully with the ongoing ODCE investigation."
High Court Judge made ruling in July on another 16 FAI documents
Last July, a High Court Judge ruled that extracts of documents that the FAI had previously handed over to the ODCE were covered by professional legal privilege and could not be used as part of the investigation.
Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds ruled that the contents of some 14 passages contained in a total of 16 documents provided by the FAI and Deloitte contained legally privileged material and could not be used in the investigation.
The Judge ordered that the passages where legal privilege does apply were to be redacted to ensure they were not seen by the ODCE as part of its probe.
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