Garda Keith Harrison* is seeking to challenge the refusal of most of his costs for appearing at the Disclosures Tribunal, the High Court has heard.
Last December, tribunal chairman Mr Justice Peter Charleton said he was entitled to the costs of his legal representation up to and including the opening day of hearings, but no further costs beyond that point.
In judicial review proceedings, he wants the High Court to reverse that decision, claiming the chairman erred in law.
On Monday, Mr Harrison’s counsel Mark Harty SC was told his application for leave to challenge the decision should be made on notice to the tribunal.
Mr Justice Charles Meenan, refusing to grant leave on an ex parte (one-side only represented) basis, said the application obviously raised issues but the correct way was to do it was on notice to the respondent.
He said the matter can come back in May.
Earlier, Mr Harty said the finding of the tribunal that co-operation involved telling the truth as “an objective reality” was not supported by law. Not telling the truth does not mean getting things wrong but involves giving misleading information, he said.
In this case, there was no finding of giving false and misleading information, he argued.
The nature of a tribunal is that it is not part of the justice system but is a fact finding exercise on behalf of the Oireachtas, he added.
The tribunal was set up in 2017 to investigate an alleged smear campaign against whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.
*This article was edited on March 3rd, 2020