Cowen did U-turn on decision to curb tribunal legal fees
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Friday July 03 2009
TAOISEACH Brian Cowen reversed a Government decision to reduce the "gravy train" of fees for tribunal lawyers.
Back in 2004, then Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy announced he was taking action to halt the "astronomical" costs by halving the daily rates of up to €2,500 for barristers at the Mahon, Moriarty and Morris tribunals .
The Public Accounts committee yesterday heard that Mr McCreevy brought a memo to Cabinet in July 2004 to tackle what he called the "gravy train" -- and it was accepted.
Memo
But the Government never implemented this decision and in 2006, when Mr Cowen was Minister for Finance, he brought another memo from his department to extend the duration of the tribunals -- and to leave the fee structure untouched. This was then accepted by Cabinet.
Fine Gael committee chairman Bernard Allen asked if this was because tribunal barristers had threatened to "walk out" if their fees were cut.
Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Dermot McCarthy said there was a serious concern that the tribunals would not be able to retain their legal teams under a reduced fee structure.
He confirmed that the Government had decided to reduce the tribunal legal fees in 2004 but "subsequently decided not to implement that decision" in 2006. And he also confirmed it was the Department of Finance, which was headed by Mr Cowen at the time, which had brought the memo to Cabinet.
Labour TD Roisin Shortall said there had been a failure by the State to deal with the legal profession, which it seemed to regard as "privileged and untouchable group".
"It seems the normal rules don't apply to this group as well as to medical consultants," she said.
The daily fees for senior counsel at the tribunals had been set at €1,700 in 1997 but they successfully lobbied the Government to increase them to €2,250 in 2002.
The daily rate for senior counsel at the Moriarty Tribunal was set even higher -- at €2,500 -- following a mistake by the Department of the Taoiseach. But the committee heard that barristers working in the courts are making up to €5,000 per day.
Labour TD Tommy Broughan said that while the tribunals had a positive impact in fighting political corruption, they certainly had created a lot of tribunal millionaires -- 25 in total.
"The old adage about the Four Courts being the Four Goldmines has certainly been borne out in terms of the tribunals," he said.
When the Mahon (then Flood) and Moriarty tribunals were set up in 1997, the Government did not expect they would be still running 12 years later. Both are due to report at the end of the year, while the Morris Tribunal into garda corruption in Donegal finished last year.
Fees
The Comptroller and Auditor General has estimated that the total cost of legal team fees for the Mahon, Moriarty and Morris tribunals will amount to almost €90m.
The final cost of the tribunals, when legal fees for other witnesses are taken into account, could be up to €370m.
The committee expressed concern that legal teams for witnesses are "chancing their arm" by submitting excessive bills which are being discounted on average by 25-30pc by the State.
But government departments have said that all of these bills are being vigorously scrutinised.
- MICHAEL BRENNAN
