Taoiseach Bertie Ahern conceded that the Government had increased legal fees and staff levels at tribunals some years ago.
He was replying to Joe Higgins (Socialist Party, Dublin West) who appealed for "a modicum of honesty" from the Government on the issue.
Mr Ahern said that, in 2004, the Government introduced new legislation to increase the number of judges and to attempt to speed up the modules.
"We did this when the [ Mahon] tribunal indicated that it would not finish its work until 2016. At that stage we introduced a new regime which ends at the end of this month.
"The Minister for the Environment [ Dick Roche] is in discussions with the tribunal as to who agreement may be reached on the modules and the fees for the future."
Mr Higgins said they knew that, eight years ago, Tánaiste Michael McDowell, then Attorney General, demanded a doubling of the daily rate of lawyers' fees in the planning tribunal. "What do we know of the Tánaiste? In his three years as Attorney General, five years as the Minister for Justice and, decades previously, time in the Four Courts representing his clients, whenever he managed to take the silver spoon or silver foot out of his mouth, he commanded massive fees.
"We did not hear a peep about the ruinous cost of fees, not only to tribunals but to ordinary working people who are priced out of getting justice because of the greed emanating from certain sections of the barrister class."
