Protest threat prompts tribunal to cancel public sittings

THE tribunal probing allegations of garda corruption has cancelled planned public sittings in Donegal after publican Frank McBrearty Jnr threatened to hold protests over the refusal to grant him legal aid.

Mr McBrearty Jnr, whose complaints of garda harassment after he was arrested in relation to the death of Donegal cattle dealer Richie Barron led to the Morris Tribunal, had planned to hold a public protest in Donegal.

“Have I not got the right to hold a peaceful protest?” Mr McBrearty Jnr, who has been representing himself at the tribunal, said. “I was only going to hold a peaceful protest, obviously the Morris tribunal were frightened of something.”

Mr McBrearty Jnr said he had planned the protest at the proposed Donegal sittings next month to highlight the difficulties he is facing as he has not been granted legal aid for the Morris Tribunal.

“I am prepared now to go to Dublin and hold the peaceful protest,” he said.

“I will then be heading for the Dáil and Justice Minister Michael McDowell after that.”

Mr McBrearty Jnr, whose family has a Supreme Court case pending over the issue of legal aid, said unless his legal costs were paid he would not co-operate with the Morris Tribunal, based in Dublin’s Clonskeagh.

“We cannot afford to pay any lawyers, we are nearly bankrupt,” he said. “The tribunal knows we are innocent people.”

Mr McBrearty said he has already requested a meeting with Mr McDowell and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern over his legal expenses.

The tribunal will consider the payment of legal costs at the end of its sittings. However, the probe may run until at least 2007. Mr McBrearty Jnr said he could not afford to pay a legal bill in the meantime and the payment at the end of the tribunal sittings would not be guaranteed.

Justice Frederick Morris, chair of the tribunal, yesterday confirmed he planned to deliver the tribunal’s second report to the Government in early June.