A Garda Superintendent has taken High Court proceedings for an order directing the State to pay his legal costs before the Morris Tribunal.
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A Gardai on duty at the first day's sitting of the Morris Tribunal in Dublin today. Photo: Haydn West
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However, the matter was adjourned today for a week when Mr Robert Barron, for the State, told Mr Justice Butler said they had only received Supt Kevin Lennon's statement of his claim last Thursday.
Mr Jack Fitzgerald SC, for Supt Lennon, said this was a matter of urgency as the Morris Tribunal, which is investigating alleged Garda corruption in Co Donegal, began hearing witness testimony today.
Mr Barron said Supt Lennon was claiming he had a contractual right to have his costs at the Tribunal paid for by the Garda Commissioner.
Supt Lennon has been suspended on 90 per cent of his salary since August last year. He claims he secured, last July, full general representation before the Tribunal. The first module to hear witnesses began yesterday and was dealing with the alleged planting of explosives in Co Donegal.
Supt Lennon claims he has an involvement in this particular module as he believed allegations would be made which could reflect on his good name and character.
He intended to full co-operate with the Tribunal which he believed would last for months and perhaps years but was unable from his own resources to fund a solicitor and counsel before the Tribunal.
His lawyers would be unable to represent him if it was proposed he wait until the Tribunal ended in order to apply for his costs. In other tribunals, he believed, it had taken up to ten years for legal costs to be paid.
He had applied to the State for the necessary funds on an ongoing basis and believed it to be a term of his contract that he be provided with such monies. He believed State funding for legal teams at the Tribunal representing the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice amounted to at least €17,500 a day. Funding for his legal representatives would be a fraction of that amount, he said.
