Dublin West TD Liam Lawlor was given a three-month prison sentence and fined £10,000 for contempt of court at the High Court this afternoon.
In his 90-minute ruling, Mr Justice Thomas Smyth ordered Mr Lawlor to spend a full week of his sentence in jail, the rest being suspended to give him a chance to purge his contempt.
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Liam Lawlor was found to be in contempt for "blatant defiance ... and failure to abide not only by the decisions of the High Court but also of the Supreme Court.
"Equality before the law," said Mr Justice Symth, "is the rightful expectation of everyone who appears before the court.
"There are no untouchables."
The contempt proceedings stem from an order of the High Court from October 24th which instructed Mr Lawlor to submit documents relating to his financial affairs since 1974.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Symth said that such non-compliance "for a pirvate is a disgrace and for a public representative a scandal."
Mr Justice Symth added that he wouldn't give Liam Lawlor a long custodial sentence as it would "further disenfranchise his constituents," who, he added, had already been disenfranchised by a seven-day jail term.
However, he said the £10,000 fine was the maximum he could and would impose for a contempt he considered "so serious."
"The maximum limitation of this fine," he added, was "several multiples too low for the seriousness of the contempt."
"I am satisfied," added Mr Lawlor, "despite expressions of goodwill[towards the Tribunal by Mr Lawlor] that . . .he knew well what was required[of the order]and. . .that this was not unintentional."
Mr Lalwor must now provide the Flood Tribunal with the documents he was ordered to porvide in the original order of the Tribunal on June 8th. From the middle of January he must provide the Tribunal with the financial documents requested every two weeks until the end of March, and is also ordered to have completely complied with the Tribunal by November 23.
It also emerged at the beginning of this afternoon’s ruling that the Dublin West TD could face further charges.
In a brief submission before the decision Mr Pat MacEntee, counsel for Liam Lawlor asked the court to take into consideration that the Flood tribunal has sent the financial documents belonging to Lawlor in its possession to the DPP and the gardai.
Liam Lawlor must report to Mountjoy Jail on Wednesday to begin his sentence.