Tribunal judges who handpicked staff accused of 'legal cronyism'
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TRIBUNAL chairmen were allowed to handpick their own legal teams at daily rates of up to €2,500 without going to public tender.
Judges Feargus Flood, Michael Moriarty and Frederick Morris were all given this freedom, despite claims that large numbers of lawyers would have been interested in applying for the posts.
Fianna Fail TD Michael McGrath said this left the tribunal open to accusations of cronyism, given that they had turned many members of the legal profession into millionaires.
"There may well have been many equally competent senior counsel and junior counsel who would have provided their services at more competitive rates," he said.
However, every government agency, including ministers, the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions handpick their own lawyers and do not tender for their services.
But under a new bill going through the Dail, there will be open competition for legal work at all future tribunals. The Tribunals of Inquiry Bill will also require their chairpersons to provide the Dail with an estimate of the final cost within months of being set up, and further updates if this cost looks likely to rise.
Mr McGrath criticised the practice of paying tribunal lawyers on a per diem (per day) basis rather than giving them a salary.
"Surely the whole concept of a per diem rate encourages counsel to continue working as long as possible because it's in their interest," he said.
But Department of Justice secretary general Sean Aylward said the tribunal chairmen had been anxious to do their business as quickly as possible.
"I don't believe they would indulge in deliberate time wasting by members of their teams for pecuniary (financial) reasons," he said.
Fine Gael committee chairman Bernard Allen said the lack of a tendering process for tribunal legal work was against the interests of the taxpayer.
"Getting a boarding pass for the greatest gravy train in Irish history and one man was able to call the shots," he said.
Hearings
Although the Government brought in legislation to allow two extra judges to sit on the Mahon Tribunal in 2004, the tribunal never carried out its plan of using them to hold separate hearings simultaneously. This was because the planning corruption modules were inter-linked with many of the same witnesses involved in both.
Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming questioned why the two extra judges had not been let go in 2007 when this was clearly apparent.
"They had their foot in the door and it was too hard to extract them," he said.
But Department of Environment secretary general Geraldine Tallon said there was a huge volume of evidence to assess, so the judges had to be kept on to bring the tribunal to conclusion.
- MICHAEL BRENNAN
