Just two days before the expiry of the six-year deadline,Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has filed for almost €40,000 damages he won from the Cork developer, Denis "Starry" O'Brien, in a libel case in 2001.
The Cork County Sheriff received papers from Mr Ahern's solicitors on Monday and has issued an order to Mr O'Brien to pay €39,254.27 within 10 days.
Mr Ahern sued the Cork developer in 2001 after he claimed to have paid IR£50,000 to Mr Ahern on behalf of Owen O'Callaghan for help with rezoning lands for the Quarryvale development in West Dublin. Mr Ahern was minister for labour at the time.
Alleged payments by Mr O'Callaghan to Mr Ahern are currently being investigated by the Mahon tribunal. Mr O'Brien made the bribery claim to the tribunal and it was published in the Sunday Business Post in a report by journalist Frank Connolly. Mr Ahern sued Mr O'Brien but never took a case against the paper.
Days before hearings began, Mr O'Brien withdrew his defence. Mr Ahern's legal team presented a series of witnesses dismissing Mr O'Brien's claims.
The judge found in favour of Mr Ahern, describing the allegations as "utterly, completely and absolutely false and untrue" and ordered Mr O'Brien to pay Mr Ahern's costs and IR£30,000, the maximum damages possible at the time.
But it emerged last October that after more than five years Mr Ahern had claimed neither the damages nor his legal costs. The six-year deadline to collect the funds expires today.
Three weeks ago Mr Ahern still had not sought the money but on Monday, with just two days to go, his solicitors filed papers with the Cork County Sheriff enforcing the court order.
As of tomorrow he would have been forced to apply to the High Court to reinstate the original court order. A spokesman for the Taoiseach would confirm only that he had ordered his legal team to pursue the funds.
"The Taoiseach has instructed his legal team to pursue costs and damages," said the spokesman. "The Taoiseach has been advised by his legal team that it would not be appropriate to comment any further at this time."
Solicitors for the Taoiseach wrote to the Cork County Sheriff on Monday with an unpaid court order for €38,092.14, roughly equivalent to IR£30,000. Including the sheriff's costs and interest, the total bill Mr O'Brien must now pay is €39,254.27.
A man answering Mr O'Brien's mobile phone yesterday said he was out of the country, and "probably will be until the All-Ireland final". A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office in Cork said yesterday that if no reply is received a hand-delivered order will be issued, followed by possible seizures. "The letter has gone out now, we'll give him 10 days' notice and see will he reply," she said. "We'll take it from that step then.
"If we don't get a response we'll hand-deliver a letter. After that the process can vary, but the sheriff has every right to seize goods to the value according to the law. "He has rights to break into a property and take what he estimates to be equivalent and is available, but of course we don't go down that road lightly."
Mr Ahern said in 2001 that he would give the damages to charity when he received the funds, but did not specify which charity.