Key witnesses who forced the adjournment of the Morris Tribunal for two days running may have to foot the bill for bringing the Garda corruption probe to Donegal, the judge leading the inquiry said today.
Mr Frank McBrearty junior
Mr Justice Morris's warning came after Frank McBrearty Snr said he could not give evidence because his business had been flooded twice in the past month.
His son, Frank Jnr, walked out of the hearing into alleged Garda abuse and intimidation of the family yesterday after refusing to be cross-examined by lawyers for police.
Mr Justice Morris said: "Who is to pay for all of this, is it fair to be asking the taxpayer to be waltzing around shelling out money?
"I am going to have to consider and hear submissions as to whether or not the costs of bringing the tribunal down here to Donegal Town should not be paid by somebody other than the State."
Mr McBrearty Snr was due to give evidence about alleged police harassment of his public house and his wrongful arrest on December 5th, 1996 in connection with the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in October of that year
He was never charged with any offence despite being kept in custody for 14 days and had to be hospitalised during his ordeal.
His son was also wrongly arrested and alleges he was beaten up, accused of hitting Mr Barron with an iron bar, and told he would be imprisoned for 20 years.
Mr Barron was later found to be the victim of a road accident.
Mr Justice Morris adjourned today's hearing until November 20th and said there was a danger of proceedings not being taken seriously.
He warned that if the witness refused to answer questions from legal representatives of gardaí he would ask the High Court to force Mr McBrearty's co-operation. He said he was giving him a "last chance" to co-operate with the inquiry when he appears in Dublin next month.
Mr McBrearty refused to give Mr Justice Morris an assurance.
"On September 24 of this year we had a very serious flood in our premises and it took me four weeks to gut out the premises," he said. "On the last night I was up until 3am, there was very serious water in our premises. I was so distressed with what happened with my premises I was not able to think straight."
He was awarded legal costs by the inquiry but despite this was not legally represented today.
PA