A former leas-chathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann has been ordered to perform 75 hours community service in lieu of a six months' sentence for not declaring a £2,500 donation he received from lobbyist Frank Dunlop.
Liam Cosgrave (49), of Merrion Park, Blackrock pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to knowingly furnishing a falsified statement where he failed to declare that he had received any donation exceeding £500 between May 15th and December 31st, 1997.
His counsel Mr Luan O Braonain said that Cosgrave had co-operated fully with the Probation and Welfare Service and was "ready willing and able to do community service".
Cosgrave was ordered to do the community service within nine months by Judge Katherine Delahunt and was told that if he was in default of the sanction, the six months' sentence would come into operation.
Mr O Braonain had said that Cosgrave's career had ended as a result of the offence and that he had since lost friends and been vilified in the media.
Cosgrave was elected to the Seanad in 1989. He is son of former taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and grandson of William T. Cosgrave who was president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from December 1922 to 1932.
Judge Delahunt told Cosgrave at the last hearing on February 27th that his position as a legislator and member of the legal profession should have made him keenly aware of the ramifications of his actions.
She said that he had an unblemished history of public service that was now lost to him and that he had already suffered significantly in that he was no longer a minister or solicitor.
She said a custodial sentence "may not be appropriate in all the circumstances of this case" and that Cosgrave's expertise "may be better put to use in service to the community".