Independent TD Michael Lowry claims his right to equality under the law and Constitution was breached by a decision to award him only one-third of his legal costs for dealing with the Moriarty Tribunal over 16 years.
He is appealing a High Court decision that the tribunal was correct in awarding him one-third of his costs, which he says run into millions of euro.
A three-judge Court of Appeal is hearing his appeal, which continues on Wednesday.
The Moriarty Tribunal, which inquired into payments to politicians and related matters, opposes the appeal.
‘Litany of falsification’
Last year, the High Court dismissed Mr Lowry’s challenge to the tribunal’s costs decision after finding he had engaged in “a litany of falsification and deception” – including the falsification of a solicitor’s files – in his failure to co-operate with the tribunal.
The court said the tribunal had found the Tipperary North TD concealed certain of his dealings from the tribunal. As a result of his conduct, the tribunal was frustrated and misled, and its work was protracted significantly, the court said.
Opening Mr Lowry’s appeal on Tuesday, Niamh Hyland SC said her client had not been treated fairly or equally compared to another subject of the tribunal, late former taoiseach Charles Haughey, who was awarded all his costs.
This was despite the “undoubted co-operation” Mr Lowry had given the tribunal during its 14 years of public and private sittings, as well as during another two years when it was dealing with costs issues, she said. This co-operation was not reflected in the one-third costs order, she added.
Mr Lowry, in contrast to Mr Haughey, had made “enormous efforts” to co-operate, including recreating records such as bank accounts, she said.