The Mahon Tribunal is to deliver its ruling today on the €10 million legal bill of former minister Mr Ray Burke.
It was confirmed over the weekend that the tribunal's chair, Judge Alan Mahon, took Mr Burke's record of co-operation into account when coming to his decision. He also considered Mr Burke's personal financial standing.
The tribunal will announce its ruling on the cost applications of builders Mr Thomas McGowan and Mr Joseph Brennan tomorrow.
Mr Burke's lawyers made a formal application to the tribunal in July that his costs be paid by the Minister for Finance.
Mr Burke owes some €10 million in legal fees. He would suffer an "unfair and crippling" financial penalty if the tribunal withheld his costs, Mr Aidan Walsh SC, for the former minister, told the tribunal.
Mr Burke was "not in a position" to pay his legal debts arising from his five-year involvement with the tribunal, which was set up to investigate payments he received in the 1980s and 1990s, Mr Walsh said. Withholding his costs would amount to a punishment or penalty equivalent to a guilty verdict in a trial.
Last year Mr Burke began legal proceedings aimed at preventing the tribunal chairman determining the issue of costs. Mr Burke had previously argued that the former chairman, Mr Justice Feargus Flood, should deal with the matter as he heard the relevant evidence.
Mr Walsh suggested that legislation passed this year to empower Judge Mahon to determine the costs issue could be invalid or unconstitutional. He described Mr Justice Flood's interim report as flawed and inaccurate.
He said Mr Justice Flood had made "incongruous findings without a shred of evidence" about Mr Burke, and this was a "fatal flaw" which undermined its standing in dealing with the issue of costs.
Mr Burke had attended all hearings that were relevant to him. Where his lawyers had not attended the tribunal, this was done in the public interest to limit the costs.
In June, lawyers for the Government called on the planning tribunal to withhold legal costs from parties who have hindered or obstructed its work. Mr Maurice Collins SC, for the Government, said it was "ridiculous" for people who were found to have obstructed or hindered the tribunal to claim they had a "legitimate expectation" for costs.