THE GOVERNMENT has rejected a claim for severance payments by barristers who worked for the Moriarty tribunal.
The tribunal, established in 1997 to examine payments to the late Charles Haughey and to former minister Michael Lowry, issued its final report in March.
In 2002 the then government agreed to pay senior counsel at the tribunal “concluding brief fees” of €30,000, while junior counsel were to receive €20,000.
The Irish Timeshas learned that over recent months a number of barristers who had been working for the tribunal before it completed its work made representations to the Department of the Taoiseach seeking payment of these concluding or termination brief fees.
The termination or concluding brief fees were in addition to the daily fees paid to lawyers during the course of the tribunal’s work, which generated millions in payments.
Up to April senior counsel Jerry Healy had received over €9.5 million in total. Another senior lawyer at the tribunal, Jacqueline O’Brien, had received over €7 million in total.
The Dáil public accounts committee reported this year that lawyers working for the tribunal over recent years had, between them, received an additional €1 million because of an error at the Department of the Taoiseach when the daily rate had been set at €2,500 rather than €2,250. It said the higher payments had been allowed to continue without rectification.
As far back as the end of 2009 the Department of Finance had urged that the Moriarty tribunal lawyers should be asked to waive their concluding brief fees in the public interest. It argued that if they did not do so then the Government should not pay the money.
In correspondence since the tribunal reported last March, senior officials at the Department of the Taoiseach had sought for tribunal counsel to waive these fees.
However, some barristers said they would not do this, but offered instead to reduce the rate by 22 per cent – in keeping with the level of cuts introduced by the Government on other fees they had received over the last year or so.
The Department of the Taoiseach raised with the Department of Finance in recent months the issue of requests it had received from senior counsel Jerry Healy and Jacqueline O’Brien seeking payment of the concluding brief fees, minus 22 per cent.
The Department of the Taoiseach also sought advice from the Attorney General on the issue and sought direction from the Department of Finance on whether to pay the fees.
The Department of Finance, however, maintained it was up to the Department of the Taoiseach to bring forward proposals on whether these brief fees should be paid.
It is understood that in mid-July the Department of the Taoiseach formally proposed the termination brief fees would not be paid in view of the current state of the public finances and the amount of money paid out to Moriarty tribunal lawyers since it was established in 1997.
The Irish Timesunderstands a memo was prepared for Cabinet on the issue by the Department of the Taoiseach in mid-July. No announcement was made at the time of any Government decision on the issue.
The Department of the Taoiseach declined to answer a series of questions on the issue of termination fees for Moriarty tribunal lawyers. However, it said: “No termination fees have been paid to Moriarty tribunal lawyers and none are envisaged.”
The Department of the Environment, which has responsibility for dealing with the Mahon tribunal, said that there never was a severance pay (“termination of brief”) agreement with Flood-Mahon tribunal lawyers. It said that “no such payments have been paid or will be paid”.
It is also understood that since it issued its final report in March, the Department of the Taoiseach has paid out nearly €300,000 in fees to Moriarty tribunal lawyers.
Some of this money may relate to work carried out prior to the completion of the tribunal’s work.
However, the Department of the Taoiseach said last night: “The tribunal held on to a small number of its legal team following publication of its report, to assist with preparations for the task of addressing the issue of third party costs.”