The Donegal publican whose complaints of Garda harassment led to the setting up of the Morris tribunal has challenged the Minister for Justice to a public debate.
Mr Frank McBrearty was responding to recent comments by Mr Michael McDowell that he could not extend legal aid to the family in order to have their lawyers present at the Morris tribunal.
The Minister said he could not make a separate case for the McBrearty family when he had not done so for Supt Kevin Lennon and Det Garda Noel McMahon, the two gardaí found last week to have corruptly planned bogus explosives finds to further their careers.
Mr McBrearty said the Minister was mistaken because Det Garda McMahon was represented by the Garda Representative Association, and therefore indirectly by the State. "Supt Lennon worked as a State prosecutor in Donegal and other divisions for some 30 years and is an experienced person in the legal process," he added.
The Raphoe nightclub owner's son, Mr Frank McBrearty jnr and his cousin Mr Mark McConnell became suspects when the Garda investigation into the death of Raphoe cattle dealer Richie Barron in 1996, initially thought to be a hit-and-run, became a murder inquiry. Complaints of Garda harassment by the McBreartys led to an internal Garda inquiry and then to the Morris tribunal. Mr McBrearty said his costs were not simply a matter for the tribunal to decide. "The Minister for Health made a special case in the Lindsay tribunal for the haemophiliac victims, as did a previous minister for justice for the victims involved in the Stardust tribunal," he said.