By John Spain 

THE various tribunals of inquiry set up by the government in Ireland to examine corruption in high places and state screw-ups of one kind or another have been heavily criticized. They are too expensive, costing a fortune and turning too many lawyers into millionaires. 

They are ineffective, since no one seems to end up in jail even when it’s clear who has been guilty of major wrongdoing. Above all they are too slow, dragging on for years and years. 

One power that the tribunals do have, however, is the ability to decide whether someone summoned to appear before them should have their legal costs paid for by the state. If you do not cooperate with the tribunal, giving untrue answers to questions or misleading it, then you run the risk of being landed with your own costs. 

Which is what has happened this week to the former Fianna Fail minister Ray Burke, who now faces a staggering EUR 10 million bill in legal costs. 

Burke has been appearing before the Mahon Tribunal which is looking into corruption in the planning process. It used to be called the Flood Tribunal, but it has gone on so long that the original judge retired. 

Part of the reason it’s gone on so long is that Burke told lies, concealed offshore accounts and generally did everything he could to frustrate the tribunal’s work. 

Now he is going to pay the price for not coming clean. This massive bill for legal costs will bankrupt him, and there’s more bad news coming. 

When he announced the decision on the legal fees on Monday of this week the judge said he wasn’t taking into account the corruption claims against Burke, only his failure to cooperate with the tribunal over the years between 1998 and 2002. 

In a nutshell, this means that Ray Burke is ruined. And things can get even worse for him. 

He faces tax charges brought by the Revenue in December relating to some of the undeclared kickbacks he got for helping builders get planning permission. He could even face jail if criminal proceedings on his tax returns go against him. 

Burke was the central figure in three of the four modules (areas of investigation) dealt with so far by the tribunal. There was the module dealing with the big builders Brennan and McGowan — how Burke got his house and a series of offshore payments made to him. 

Then there was the Century Radio module, dealing with who got a national radio license and a questionable payment to Burke. And there was the James Gogarty module (Gogarty being a former building company executive who had been a witness to Burke’s corruption) which covered the famous brown envelope payment to Burke at his home. 

Is this the beginning of the avalanche? Are the Irish people finally going to see a tribunal penalizing wrongdoers? 

On Tuesday of this week, the day after his decision on Burke, the judge announced that the builders Brennan and McGowan would also have to pay their own legal fees, around EUR 2.5 million. The difference, of course, is that this is small change to one of the biggest construction companies in Ireland. 

There was general delight here that one tribunal was at last showing some real teeth. It is true that another former Fianna Fail senior politician, Liam Lawlor, has been sent to jail by the tribunal to help jog his memory. But that was a bit of a joke, since it was just a week in the slammer for contempt, and then he was out again. 

And, of course, former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charlie Haughey was unmasked by the Moriarty Tribunal as a politician endlessly on the take. Based on what was revealed, he was hit with a big tax bill on his undeclared income. 

But so far he has not been found guilty of corruption, since it has not been proven that he bent the rules to do favors for those who gave him the money. 

But the Burke decision on legal fees is of a different order altogether, since effectively it will take every cent the former minister has. 

The Mahon Tribunal has now set down a marker. Lies and obstruction at a tribunal will not pay. If the judge decides you are not co-operating, you risk losing everything, like Ray Burke. 

Hitting people for legal costs may seem a roundabout way of bringing them to justice. But since proving corruption in court can be very difficult (and people have to be convicted in court, not at the tribunals, if they are to be jailed) this may be one of the ways of penalizing them. The other way, of course, is hitting them for tax, which is the way some Mafia figures were got in America. 

Another result of this week’s decision on Burke should be to speed up the work of the tribunals. Lawyers will not be so willing to let their clients dodge and bluff rather than answer questions and provide information to the tribunals if they risk not getting paid because their clients eventually are judged to be uncooperative. 

The slowness of the tribunals has become a big issue, along with the huge costs involved because of the enormous fees paid to the lawyers involved. In June, the judge at the Mahon Tribunal said that his tribunal had another 11 years to run! 

Other tribunals are equally slow, meaning that some of those being investigated will be dead before the tribunal reports can embarrass them. But changes are being made by the government. 

In July Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy announced a new fees structure for 

barristers who work at tribunals. That fee structure will apply to any new tribunal or inquiry which is established. But it won’t affect existing tribunals for at least two years. 

The legal bills alone for the 11 tribunals that have been running over the last seven years are now over EUR100 million. Many already wealthy barristers have been turned into multi-millionaires. 

Senior barristers at tribunals get paid around EUR 2,500 a day, with junior barristers getting around EUR2,000 a day. And that comes after signing on fees at the beginning plus expenses and so on. 

Under the changes announced recently by the government, the payments are to be limited to per year payments of EUR 213,000 for senior counsel, EUR 142,000 for junior counsel and EUR 176,000 for a solicitor. 

The government has also set a series of deadlines for introduction of the new fee structures for the tribunals, and also some target completion dates. The move by the government, which will reduce the timescale and spiraling legal fees of the tribunals, was agreed by Cabinet last week at its first meeting after the summer break. 

End dates for five of the tribunals — but not the complicated MahonTribunal into planning corruption — have also been agreed. State funding of the tribunals will not continue after these dates, although with the reduced lawyer fees they may come to a conclusion earlier than expected anyway. 

The gravy train for the lawyers is coming to a halt. But it’s too late now. For example, two of the barristers investigating the financial affairs of former Taoiseach Charlie Haughey have been paid more than EUR 4 million each in fees. 

Overall, most people feel that while the tribunals have produced worthwhile information, it has come too slowly and at a cost that has been too high. Meanwhile, although reputations have been tarnished, no one has gone to jail as a result, in spite of all the corruption that was rife in the political system here during the Haughey era. 

Ray Burke could yet be the first one not to escape. He has been stripped of his wealth this week. Before the end of the year he could be in jail, if the Revenue decide to make an example of him for false income declaration.