The Minister for Agriculture regretted that incomplete information was given to a deputy on the legal fees incurred by Mr Pat Rabbitte and Mr Tomas MacGiolla as witnesses in the beef tribunal. The House was told a payment of £754,760 had been made to Messrs Michael D. White and Co, the solicitors who acted for Mr Rabbitte, the Minister of State, for Commerce, Science and Technology, and Mr MacGiolla, a former Workers' Party deputy.
"There was absolutely no political or other gain for the original inaccuracy, said Mr Yates, who said it was a "technical" and "human" error in his Department.
In a statement later, Mr Rabbitte said he had publicly revealed the figure when he released the full judgment of the Taxing Master.
The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, recalled that Mr Justice Hamilton, who chaired the tribunal, had said that if questions were answered properly in the Dail then they might not have required a tribunal.
He recalled that last Tuesday week the party's spokesman on justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, tabled a question to the Minister and received a reply saying that costs were being examined by the Taxing Master.
When Mr O'Donoghue then tried to raise it on the adjournment the Ceann Comhairle said it was a matter for the Dail.
When Mr O'Donoghue submitted further questions, the Department wrote back to advise him that replied that there was an oversight in the original reply and gave details of the fees paid.