The widow of the late TD Liam Lawlor "simply cannot afford" to pay the costs of her protracted legal representation at the Mahon planning tribunal over a long period and the tribunal should ensure she does not have to do so, the High Court has been told.
While Mr Lawlor, who died in a car crash in Moscow in October 2005, had made a will leaving his estate to his widow Hazel, the will did not specify the property involved, Martin Giblin SC said.
The will had yet to be admitted to probate and, while there was difficulty ascertaining the extent of the liabilities, they were "huge". The Revenue had also filed an assessment against Mr Lawlor, he added. A solicitor for Ms Lawlor would outline the difficulties administering the estate.
Mr Giblin told Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill yesterday that the tribunal was also seeking to have substantial orders for legal costs which it had secured against Mr Lawlor paid out of his estate.
He was making closing submissions on behalf of Ms Lawlor in her application for a stay on the opening, due next Monday, of the tribunal's Quarryvale Two module. That module, into land rezoning at Carrickmines, opened briefly 18 months ago and was due to resume on Monday with a new opening statement after which developer Tom Gilmartin is to take the witness stand.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is the second on a list of 130 witnesses called as part of the inquiry but is not due to give evidence until the end of May.
Ms Lawlor, Somerton House, Lucan, Co Dublin, is seeking the stay pending the outcome of her full judicial review challenge, initiated last January, to the Mahon tribunal. She wants court orders restraining it from making findings of serious misconduct against herself or her late husband unless proven beyond reasonable doubt.
In her application, she contends that if the stay is not granted, irreparable damage could be done in the Quarryvale Two module to her late husband, his estate and to her and her family.
Mr Giblin said that following the death of her husband, Ms Lawlor was extremely unwell. She was subpoenaed by the tribunal a short time after the funeral and informed she was to be a witness. Her doctor had written to the tribunal saying she was unable to attend now and would be unable to attend into the foreseeable future.
Ms Lawlor had had "to step into her husband's shoes", Mr Giblin said.
He said the tribunal had already said it did not intend to sit in the two weeks before the general election. In those circumstances it was likely that, if it started the inquiry next Monday, it would only sit for a few days and would not resume again until the next legal term.
Mr Giblin rejected arguments by the tribunal that Ms Lawlor had waited until the conclusion of the legal challenge by developer Owen O'Callaghan before bringing her application.
He said the medical evidence would show that Ms Lawlor was not able to give the matter her attention until the end of 2006.
This was because of her "ongoing grief reaction" and also because she was learning of how her husband had been treated by the tribunal, he said. Mr Lawlor went to his death unaware that an incorrect entry in the tribunal record about a payment to him had since been corrected.
Mr Giblin also submitted that the tribunal could not now make claims of delay on Ms Lawlor's part because of its own delays in dealing with her late husband.
The hearing resumes today.