Morris tribunal: Lawyers representing Sgt John White have told the Morris tribunal that a failure to grant costs to their client would be a punishment to them, and not to the suspended sergeant.
Det Sgt White was severely criticised in the last three tribunal reports, which found that he planted a shotgun at a Traveller site, arranged for a hoax bomb to be put at a telecommunications mast, and used a State agent to obtain a licensing prosecution.
John Whelan SC said Sgt White had provided "copious statements" and documents to the tribunal, and while the tribunal found Det Sgt White had lied, "no conclusive evidence has been adduced in the tribunal as proof positive that he has been untruthful in his evidence".
Mr Whelan said his client gave evidence openly and willingly to the tribunal, and had "secured two acquittals in jury trials, and he continues to assert his innocence".
The barrister also argued that the effect of a decision not to award costs would be not to punish Det Sgt White, but "to punish a legal team who have now been involved in this tribunal for three years and who have not received one penny of remuneration".
He said counsel representing Det Sgt White were sole practitioners without the back-up and support of a firm, and the solicitors were "part of a small provincial family practice without the resources of a major office and without institutional support in terms of retainers".
The barrister said the "toll on the personal life" of attending solicitor Paudge Dorrian should be taken into account, as he had to leave Donegal every Monday at 4.30am to travel to Dublin, and did not get home until midnight on Friday.
"Would it be fair or equitable to punish solicitors and counsel despite criticisms in the report in circumstances such as these?" Mr Whelan asked.
Later Carty team member Det Sgt George Kyne said a statement taken from Garda Tina Fowley was read over to her and she initialled changes before signing it.
Garda Fowley says a mistake was made in the statement, reversing the meaning of what she said about discrepancies between handwritten interview notes and a typed version of the notes she saw during the Barron investigation.
Garda John Harkin has told the tribunal that the notes were a forgery, which he altered after he was approached by Sgt Brian McEntee and Det Insp John McGinley, who said he was embarrassed by two questions in the notes, which he asked Róisín McConnell.
Garda Fowley told the Carty team she first noticed the discrepancy when she was working on the file for the Barron investigation in September 1997.