Tribunal costing €50,000 a week

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE:THE MAHON tribunal is still costing nearly €50,000 per week although it has not held public hearings since 2008, a Dáil committee was told yesterday.

The secretary general of the Department of the Environment, Geraldine Tallon, told the public accounts committee that the tribunal’s administrative and legal costs in the period between the beginning of January and mid- March this year came to €557,996. This included payments of €184,000 to the tribunal’s internal legal team and €312,190 in administrative costs.

Ms Tallon said the tribunal had 21 staff, which was down from 46 at the time of public hearings.

Chairman of the public accounts committee John McGuinness said the costs of the tribunal were running at €46,000 per week as it prepared to publish its final report.

The tribunal held the last of its public hearings in December 2008.

Ms Tallon said the tribunal had so far cost €97.9 million. However, she said the most recent estimates put forward by tribunal chairman Alan Mahon suggested the final bill could be between €240 million and €250 million.

Asked by John Deasy of Fine Gael who would pay for the remaining €150 million or so, Maria McLaughlin of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said there was provision of €30 million in the revised spending estimates for the Government this year to cover costs arising from the tribunal.

Ms Tallon also expressed concern about the extent of the delivery of leaflets to homes around the country on the new household charge. She had not received the leaflet so far.

She said the Department of the Environment had wanted people to receive the leaflet in the second half of February or in early March. A private company had been engaged to carry out this work.