The judge running a new Tribunal into the smearing of Garda whistleblowers, says anyone who lies to him is wasting public money.
Justice Peter Charleton has also raised questions about whether he can hear certain evidence from journalists, and from the Garda commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan.
Justice Charleton was speaking as his Tribunal, which will be known as the 'Disclosure Tribunal', formally began its work this morning.
He said the Tribunal was funded out of the tax revenues paid by all Irish men and women, and was "a drain on the resources of the Irish people".
"Every lie told to this Tribunal will be a waste of what ordinary men and women have paid for," he added.
The justice noted that he had been asked to investigate whether Noirin O'Sullivan had relied on a false criminal allegation in the course of her submissions to the previous O'Higgins Commission.
However this morning he questioned whether this might be covered by client privilege - where, if she chose to, the Commissioner could refuse to reveal her instructions to her lawyers.
Justice Charleton also openly asked whether any communications between the Garda Press Office and journalists, which were central to an alleged smear campaign against Maurice McCabe, can be examined.
He questioned whether journalistic privilege could be invoked, even in cases where the confidential source of any information was not acting in the public interest but rather "solely motivated by detraction or calumny".
He said submissions would be heard on both subjects.
Today's opening statement also saw a call for any member of the public, with knowledge about the matters being investigated, to contact the Tribunal's solicitor within two weeks.
Once these submissions have been considered, the Tribunal's own legal team will make a public statement, with the examination of witnesses taking place afterwards.
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News:
One more pre-Monday shout for the latest instalment of That Was The Week (#twtw), my new weekly politics podcast for @todayfm: https://t.co/1zrTgJzrxq
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) February 26, 2017
