Former Fianna Fáil TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, owes approximately €1,000,000 in legal fees arising from the inquiry into his financial affairs by the planning tribunal at Dublin Castle.
Around €750,000 of the debt is owed to the tribunal itself.
The figure emerged as Mr Lawlor was pleading with the tribunal to award him interim costs in order for him to be able to comply with orders of discovery. He claimed that it was "unfeasible" for him to provide the requested documents unless the tribunal awarded him interim costs with which he could pay some of his debts.
He argued that in a number of cases, solicitors were refusing to hand over documents unless he could arrange some form of payment for them.
He acknowledged that there were a number of outstanding documents, but he had attempted to furnish them "to the best of my ability". He said a legal firm in Jersey was seeking £60,000 sterling to comply with his request for documents, another in Gibraltar was demanding £10,000, while he owed money to yet another firm with offices in London and Prague.
Mr Lawlor asked if he was expected to go into the various solicitors' firms in London, Prague, Dublin and Gibraltar to whom he owed money and demand that they work for him to produce the required document merely on the say-so of the tribunal?
"I'm not in a position to do that," he argued. "I fail to see how I'm supposed to get around that impasse."
Mr Lawlor appeared at the tribunal today without a legal team. He said he was not in a financial position to have representation and was seeking help in order for him to do so. "While you're on the taxpayer's payroll, I am not," he told Mr Des O'Neill, SC for the tribunal.
The costs issue was "wholly irrelevant", Mr O'Neill countered, insisting that interim payments were not within the remit of the tribunal and all decisions on fees would be made at the end of the current inquiry.
Mr O'Neill also noted that since the tribunal began investigating Mr Lawlor's financial affairs in 1999, it had that uncovered "millions of pounds" which had passed through his accounts remained unaccounted for.
Mr Lawlor's former solicitor, Mr Dermot P Coyne, is currently suing him in the High Court for about £250,000 in unpaid fees. Mr Lawlor said he may even be at risk of losing his home as a result of the action.
Following a request from the tribunal for permission to call Mr Coyne to attend to give evidence, Mr Lawlor agreed, "as long as he doesn't seek solicitor's fees from me". Mr Lawlor agreed to waive the lawyer-client privilege if Mr Coyne agreed to the request to appear.
