The finances of Mayo TD Beverley Flynn may receive another blow next month when the High Court Taxing Master decides if she is liable to pay the €1 million fees earned by RTÉ's main witness in the case, James Howard.
The State broadcaster, whose insurers have already paid RTÉ's legal team's costs, will now insist its own legal bill of over €1.5 million is paid, RTÉ sources told The Irish Times last night.
However, Ms Flynn could first seek to negotiate to pay the money on a phased basis, or to pay only a reduced amount, or, indeed, she could refuse to deal with the station at all.
If the TD was to adopt the latter approach, RTÉ would be forced to return to the High Court to seek an order for payment of its own fees, and the €1 million fees for its main witness, Mr Howard, if they are granted.
Ms Flynn alleged she was libelled in six RTÉ broadcasts in 1998 which revealed that as an employee of National Irish Bank, she had encouraged or assisted a number of people to evade tax. But a High Court jury found that she was not defamed and the Supreme Court rejected her appeal.
The costs battle is unlikely to be resolved before the next Dáil election, though it is not clear yet whether Ms Flynn, the daughter of former European commissioner Padraig Flynn, will seek to run again. Under the 1992 Electoral Act, undischarged bankrupts are not eligible to run for the Dáil, while those declared bankrupt during a Dáil term automatically lose their seats, according to Section 41 of the Act.
So far, Ms Flynn, who is no longer a member of Fianna Fáil, has accepted that she cannot afford to pay the legal bill from her own resources.
If she were to be declared bankrupt, the TD would have six months to get the declaration annulled, or to get a certificate of discharge under the Bankruptcy Act, 1988, from the High Court.
If she failed to get either of those, the Examiner of the High Court would be required to notify the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil of her bankruptcy "as soon as possible" after the six-months deadline passed.
