A former senator has said it was "unfortunate" there were close connections between gardaí in Letterkenny and Fianna Fáil.
Seán Maloney, who was a Labour Party senator between 1993 and 1997, gave evidence at the Morris tribunal about representations he received at the time from Raphoe publican, Frank McBrearty snr.
The publican claims he was the target of a campaign of Garda harassment, along with his extended family, employees and agents.
Mr Maloney said there was "a culture up there that was different to anywhere else" in Co Donegal, and he had seen licensed premises in Letterkenny serve alcohol after hours.
"I do not believe the law should be broken, but if it is applied it must be applied fairly," he said.
In February 1997, Mr Maloney wrote to minister for justice Nora Owen about Mr McBrearty snr, saying that the publican was concerned at the "continual harassment" of the family, and that he felt Mr McBrearty and his family had been "singled out".
Mr Maloney said he never received a complaint about public order in Raphoe, while there were frequent complaints about disorder in Letterkenny.
He said he had spoken in the Seanad about the lack of policing in Letterkenny after a garda was seriously assaulted in the town on a weekend when he was told there were more gardaí on duty in Raphoe than in Letterkenny.
"You would get a tougher policy for a number of weeks, and then suddenly the numbers would drop off again and the whole thing would be forgotten about," he said.
Cormac Ó Dúlacháin, who represents former Sgt John White, said: "You seem to indicate in some way that the Port Road was not being observed closely for political reasons."
"Well, I always felt that there was a close connection between, unfortunately, the gardaí and the Fianna Fáil party in Letterkenny," Mr Maloney said.
"They were never too sore at them because if we raised too many issues in relation to them at council meetings, we were told that we were 'giving the town a bad name, so let's not go too deeply into that type of situation'," he added.
Mr Maloney said when he first met Mr McBrearty in 1996, "he felt he was being set up in relation to the Barron case and so were his family".
Later, former Garda superintendent Kevin Lennon said Det Sgt White had not told him Paul Quinn, the brother of three sisters who were arrested, had alleged that evidence was planted on him.
Later Mr Lennon added: "I am not any longer taking any more raps for Sgt White's misbehaviour behind my back, and that's the bottom line." He said he had "paid a heavy price for things done behind my back."