Tribunals have cost €400m and may exceed €1bn

Current tribunals and other public inquiries are estimated to have cost more than €400 million and may exceed €1 billion by the time they have concluded, the Public Accounts Committee has been told.

Mr Tom Considine, secretary general of the Department of Finance, told the committee that third-party legal costs incurred on running tribunals to date had not been paid. However, it was estimated those costs were at least €300 million.

Mr Considine said the costs paid to date of sitting and completed tribunals and other public inquiries had reached €144 million. Of this, €103 million was for legal costs, while €41 million has been paid on "other costs".

The figures included €25.5 million paid in legal costs to the legal representatives of third parties involved in the three completed tribunals, or 68 per cent of the total costs of those tribunals.

The three tribunals are the Beef Tribunal, the McCracken Tribunal and the Finlay Inquiry.

If the same ratio was applied to the nine sitting tribunals and inquiries, third-party costs incurred to date would be approximately €300 million. This was as well as €106.4 million paid out in respect of those tribunals on State legal costs and other costs. The figures are up to date, relating to the end of last month.

The chairman of the PAC, Mr John Perry TD (FG), said the €300 million for third-party legal costs to date for the ongoing tribunals and inquiries was "probably conservative".

PAC member Mr Seán Fleming TD (FF) said it was difficult to see how the cost of the ongoing tribunals and inquiries would be less than €1 billion. He said many of them were only halfway through and there were hundreds of witnesses who had yet to give evidence. The final cost of them would be a very significant burden to the State. In the future it may be wiser to impose a time- frame and spending cap on tribunals and inquiries.

Mr Considine said considerable work had been carried out by the Government to formulate a cheaper and more streamlined tribunal method. The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, would shortly submit to Government his proposals. While the content of that submission could not be revealed, it included a "tightening and better focusing of the terms of reference with a view to minimising duration and costs". Also included were proposals on streamlining tribunals and reviewing the basis of payment for legal representatives.