Counsel for the former Fianna Fáil minister Mr Ray Burke told the Mahon tribunal this morning their client had "bent over backwards" to help the tribunal and that he should be awarded legal costs for his co-operation.
Former Fianna Fáil minister Mr Ray Burke
Mr Burke's lawyers made a formal application to the tribunal today that his costs be paid by the Minister for Finance.
The tribunal chairman, Judge Alan Mahon, indicated a decision will be made on the matter in September. Mr Burke owes an estimated €10 million in legal fees.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Des O'Neill SC, outlined the findings previously made by the tribunal that Mr Burke had received corrupt payments.
He said Mr Burke had maintained, prior to these findings, that he was the victim of "a campaign of calumny and abuse".
Mr O'Neill said, however, that the second interim report of the tribunal, which found the former minister had received corrupt payments, was a rejection of Mr Burke's evidence to the tribunal.
Not only was Mr Burke's evidence rejected, but the tribunal had also found he had "colluded with others" to provide false information. The tribunal was obstructed and hindered in its operations by reason of Mr Burke's failure to give truthful evidence, he added.
It was not possible to identify what costs would have been incurred by Mr Burke if he had complied with his obligations to give a full and truthful response to the tribunal.
The actual costs now claimed by the applicant were incurred in giving false accounts to the tribunal, Mr O'Neill said.
He added that failure to tell the truth to the tribunal amounted to non-co-operation and could amount to obstruction of the tribunal.
The law provided that the tribunal should have regard to the second interim report, which made findings of corruption against Mr Burke, in considering the costs issue.
Mr O'Neill again outlined the corrupt payments received by Mr Burke from the builders Brennan and McGowan and from Mr Oliver Barry of Century Radio to his offshore bank accounts, as set out in the second interim report of the tribunal.
Mr Aidan Walsh SC, for Mr Burke, said his client was "not a peripheral character" in the tribunal but was central to it and was the main focus of some investigations.
It had never been anticipated that the inquiries into Mr Burke's affairs would take five years and the costs incurred were "impossible to bear".
Mr Burke had "at all times" co-operated with the tribunal, he had respected its decisions and had never gone to court to challenge it, Mr Walsh said.
The payments received by Mr Burke were disclosed by him to the tribunal before the terms of reference were specifically amended to investigate Mr Burke.
Mr Burke had also been dealing with the tribunal for some time before the current legal team came on board and therefore his lawyers had some catching up to do and had to study "voluminous" documentation. The lawyers had assisted the tribunal and had not taken and "obscure, pedantic" approach to it, Mr Walsh said.
They had not delayed the workings of the tribunal in any way.
Mr Walsh said he knew there was "political pressure and media pressure" in relation to the matter, but that the decision on whether to award costs to Mr Burke had to be fair.