Builders to learn if they will receive €2.6m legal costs

Mr Tom Brennan and Mr Joseph McGowan, the Co Mayo builders found by the planning tribunal to have made corrupt payments to former minister Mr Ray Burke, will today learn if they are to receive more than €2.6 million in legal costs.

Two years ago the tribunal, then chaired by Mr Justice Feargus Flood, found that Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan had obstructed and hindered the inquiry.

Mr Justice Flood's report maintained that Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan had colluded with each other. The judge also found that the developers had colluded with Mr Burke to give false accounts as to how funds were raised so as to prevent the tribunal from establishing the true source and purpose of payments to the former minister. Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan have initiated legal action against the findings of the report.

At a special costs hearing before the new tribunal chairman, Judge Alan Mahon, earlier this year, lawyers for Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan argued that the tribunal had provided inadequate detail about the extent of the developers' alleged lack of co-operation.

The Dublin auctioneer, Mr John Finnegan, who was found to have obstructed the tribunal, and the former Government press secretary, Mr PJ Mara, who was found to have failed to co-operate with the inquiry, are expected to make representations today on their costs. Yesterday counsel for Mr Hugh Owens, an accountant who devised legal tax avoidance schemes for Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan, made representations for over €125,000 in legal costs.