The tribunal heard that former Fianna Fáil minister Mr Ray Burke "bent over backwards" to help the tribunal, and that he should be awarded legal costs for his co-operation.
Mr Burke's lawyers made a formal application to the tribunal yesterday that his costs be paid by the Minister for Finance. Mr Burke owes an estimated €10 million in legal fees. The tribunal chairman, Judge Alan Mahon, indicated a decision would be made on the matter in September.
Mr Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, outlined the tribunal's findings under its former chairman, Mr Justice Flood, that Mr Burke had received corrupt payments.
He said Mr Burke had maintained, prior to these findings, that he was the victim of "a campaign of calumny and abuse".
Mr O'Neill said, however, that the tribunal's second interim report, which outlines corrupt payments to the former minister, was a rejection of Mr Burke's evidence to the tribunal.
He said the tribunal was obstructed and hindered in its operations by reason of Mr Burke's failure to give truthful evidence. The actual costs now claimed by the applicant [Mr Burke] were incurred in giving false accounts to the tribunal.
Mr Aidan Walsh SC, for Mr Burke, said his client was "not a peripheral character" in the tribunal, but was central to it.
Mr Burke must, the lawyer said, get "every hop of the ball" when it came to his costs.
The tribunal had allowed Mr Burke to believe his costs would be paid, and had never given him any warning that they would not.
He said there was also "never a hint" of non co-operation on Mr Burke's part by the tribunal during the five years it was actively investigating his affairs.
Mr Burke had "at all times" co-operated with the tribunal.
He had respected its decisions, and had never gone to court to challenge it, Mr Walsh said. His lawyers had assisted the tribunal, and had not taken an "obscure, pedantic" approach to it.
In the seven years since the tribunal's establishment, Mr Burke had endured stress, public humiliation and loss of standing in the community, and had lost his political reputation and his job as a minister and as a TD.
It was Mr Burke's contention that he had "bent over backwards" to help the tribunal with its work.
An order against him for costs would "financially break him", and would, in effect, inflict a punishment on him that was an unfair penalty.
Mr Walsh said there was no possibility of Mr Burke ever being able to meet the legal fees incurred in having himself represented before the tribunal.
Mr Burke had made a recent settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau for €600,000, and also faced sentencing and possible fines in relation to two matters before the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
He was now living on a public service pension, and had no other income or investments, Mr Walsh added.
Judge Mahon said he would make a determination on costs in September.
The tribunal adjourned until tomorrow morning, when developer Mr Owen O'Callaghan is to resume his evidence.