Concern voiced over council's €3.2m legal fees

Concern was expressed yesterday at the scale of legal fees paid out by Clare County Council over the past two years.

Figures issued by the council show it paid a total of €3.2 million in 2004 and 2003, prompting councillors to call on the authority to employ its own in-house legal agent.

The figures show that the legal firm that acts on behalf of the council, Michael Houlihan & Partners of Ennis, received €1.73 million from it over the past two years.

This figure was made up of €1.054 million in 2003 and €676,706 last year.

The other payments in the top five last year include €294,051 paid to John Casey and Co and €164,190 paid to Brian Casey & Associates. Both payments are for work related to the Ennis bypass.

Gerard Kiely SC received €78,650, and James Connolly SC €51,512.

Last year the council spent a total of €1.6 million in 39 separate payments to legal firms and barristers. In 2003 it disbursed a total of €1.63 million in 38 payments.

The top five earning firms in 2003 were Michael P Houlihan €1,054,154, Brophy Solicitor €119,206, James Connolly €56,669, John Casey and Co €55,559 and Patrick Gerard Quinn €49,599.

Senior council official Michael McNamara said yesterday that the accommodation currently proposed for the new council corporate headquarters did not make provision for a legal department in-house.

"It would involve the recruitment of the appropriate number of legal personnel together with administrative backup.

"Having regard to the current embargo on increases in public service numbers, the recruitment of the additional staff required for a legal department could only be undertaken on the basis of a similar reduction in numbers employed in some other department of the council," Mr McNamara said.

An Independent councillor Christy Curtin said yesterday the figures showed that there was more than enough work for the council to justify the employment of its own legal personnel.