Legal advice cost Fás €4m

FÁS SPENT more than €4 million on legal advice in the four years to 2008, with the bulk of the work going to William Fry solicitors.

Figures released by the State employment authority show that William Fry was paid €121,400 over the same period for advice it gave concerning the authority’s controversial special audit report on its Corporate Affairs Division.

That report, in time, provoked an inquiry by the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts into expenditure controls at Fás, which in turn led to the resignation of the former director general Rody Molloy.

The committee’s report on its inquiry is currently being reviewed by its lawyers and is expected to be finalised this Thursday.

Committee chairman Bernard Allen TD said the report was likely to be published 10 days’ after its final approval, depending on how fast the printers could “turn it around”.

William Fry earned €4.2 million giving legal advice on the audit report and such issues as property dealings, human resources issues, issues to do with Safe Pass, and Garda vetting issues.

Eames solicitors earned €195,000 over the 2004 to 2007 period, mostly from debt collection work.

In 2006 it earned fees of €48,012 from work to do with the Birr, Co Offaly, Fás decentralisation site, while it earned a further €46,934 on the same matter the following year. The decentralisation of Fás to Co Offaly has now been stalled.