Ruling on discovery of Richardson documents

Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon is to rule today on whether to allow tribunal counsel discovery of documents from all of the bank accounts of Des Richardson, former chief fundraiser with Fianna Fáil.

Tribunal counsel Des O'Neill SC outlined a draft order to the tribunal yesterday requesting 71 banks, stockbrokers and investment houses to discover all documents and records either in or outside the State relating to accounts held by Mr Richardson or for his benefit. The proposed order would cover a period from January 1992 to date.

Mr O'Neill said the request was not onerous on Mr Richardson, since it would be the financial institutions that would be making the discovery. Given evidence to the tribunal that emerged yesterday, that Mr Richardson "had various dealings with the banks which seemed to merge", it was appropriate that the order be made, Mr O'Neill said.

He cited the way in which Mr Richardson chose to donate £2,500 to Mr Ahern in December 1993. He said that what should have been a simple exercise of a donation from one person to another, had become one of enormous complexity, which the tribunal would have to explore.

He said it was appropriate for the tribunal to look for a global order and he made no apology for appearing to make a "trawl" of Mr Richardson's accounts.

However, James O'Callaghan, counsel for Mr Richardson, said the proposed order was "wholly excessive and unnecessary". He said Mr Richardson was being questioned in relation to the £2,500 he gave to Mr Ahern in 1993 and the collection he took among friends of Mr Ahern to help him with the legal costs of his separation.

He said he understood the need for documentation from around the time of that transaction and would advise his client to agree to an order on his accounts if the dates ran from January 1992 to December 1994.

However, he said, an order that included accounts "to date" was "in effect nothing more than a fishing expedition" and was irrelevant to the tribunal.

He also said the order would be outside the terms of reference of the tribunal.