Tribunal lawyers paid but witnesses wait for costs

LAWYERS representing the Minister for Justice, the Garda Commissioner and other members of the force at the Morris Tribunal have been paid almost €5 million in legal fees over the past four years.

The payments were made directly by the State which is “meeting those costs on a continuing basis.”

This is unlike other parties involved in the garda corruption inquiry who must wait to the end of each phase of hearings to apply to Justice Morris to have their lawyers’ fees paid without guarantee that they will be paid.

Figures obtained by Fine Gael from the Department of Justice show that from 2002 to the end of last month, six barristers - four senior counsels and two junior counsels - earned close to €4.6m working for Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and 100 mainly rank and file gardaí.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, meanwhile, has had three barristers working on his behalf and on behalf of his department.

They were paid €400,000 up to the end of October this year. These sums do not include the cost of work carried out by staff in the Chief State Solicitor’s office on behalf of the State parties.

Frank McBrearty Jnr, a key figure in the tribunal which has found he was deliberately framed for the murder of Raphoe cattle dealer Ritchie Barron, described the disparity in treatment between State witnesses and members of the public as “an absolute disgrace.”

The McBrearty family ceased co-operating with the tribunal because their legal costs were not guaranteed. They said they could not afford to pay lawyers themselves and were unwilling to subject themselves to the hearings without a legal team present to represent them.

They were awarded some costs for one phase of hearings but Mr McBrearty said yesterday no payments had been received yet as they still had to be adjudicated by the Taxing Master which could take another 18 months.

“The bottom line is that the Garda Commissioner’s legal team were paid over €4.5m but they expect us, the victims, to come in with no legal assistance.

“It’s an absolute disgrace that the victims of this whole scandal are not guaranteed their costs when the Garda Commissioner, his gardaí and the Minister for Justice have their solicitors paid every month without question.”

Fine Gael MEP and Senator Jim Higgins expressed amazement at the payments. “The inequity of the whole situation is mind- boggling. Justice Minister Michael McDowell has repeatedly refused a guarantee of legal costs before the tribunal to the innocent McBrearty family while forking out €4.5m of taxpayers’ money to fund the legal representation of 101 gardaí,” he said.

In September this year, Mr McBrearty received a €1.5m award after settling a High Court action against the State for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution and breaches of his constitutional rights.

Mr McBrearty has been asked to attend as a witness at the next phase of hearings at the tribunal starting in the new year but he said yesterday he would not be going unless he was guaranteed his costs.

Mr McDowell has said repeatedly he cannot change the set-up of the Tribunal which requires public witnesses to apply for their costs in retrospect. This arrangement was created to allow Justice Morris discretion to refuse costs, or part of costs, if he felt a witness did not fully co-operate with the proceedings.