THE Department of the Environment has been told it could take another six months before the report of the Mahon Tribunal is published.

The public sittings of the tribunal ended in December 2008 meaning publication of the report will have taken two years at the very least.

The tribunal is currently the subject of Supreme Court proceedings, which will not be heard until the end of this month.

Emails and briefing notes prepared by the Department of the Environment concede there is no way the report can be made ready by year end, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

They estimate that even if there was a favourable outcome in proceedings taken against the tribunal by developer Owen O'Callaghan, it would take at least two more months to finalise the report.

A meeting of senior government officials in August this year said publication before the end of the year was now deemed "unlikely".

Minutes of that meeting said: "Regarding the likely timeframe for conclusion and publication of the Mahon report, the latest correspondence with the judge indicates an end-September target for completion of drafting.

"With a further six to eight weeks for type-set, proofing and printing – going on previous experiences and time slippage, it is unlikely that report will be ready for publication before end-2010."

Further emails from September seeking updates on the progress of the report confirmed there was no chance of finishing this year.

A briefing note prepared by a senior official in the Department of the Environment said they had originally hoped to have the report in July 2010.

The document says: "On 31 March, the registrar to the tribunal wrote to the Department stating that following a review of progress … the chairman and his colleagues are satisfied that completion will not be achieved by the end of May 2010.

"Furthermore, the chairman and members indicated to the Department that they felt it pointless providing an estimate for completion of the final report/recommendations until such time as the outcome of the O'Callaghan Supreme Court appeal was known."

O'Callaghan's court case centres on circulating adverse findings of the tribunal to those involved prior to publication to allow them make submissions.

If successful, it will have major repercussions for the publication of the report and could push back the completion date by up to a year.