The escalating costs of tribunals of inquiry are to be examined by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in private hearings with the Attorney General and the Minister for Justice, it has emerged. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
The PAC, which is chaired by the Fine Gael Sligo/Leitrim TD, Mr John Perry, also wants to interview the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, in private.
The decision to push for meetings with the Attorney General, Mr Brady, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell and Mr McCreevy was taken by the PAC during a private meeting last Thursday.
If necessary, the PAC, the Dáil's spending watchdog, is set to demand that existing contracts with barristers are renegotiated, political sources told The Irish Times.
The hearings are to be held in private to encourage the AG and the ministers to be "more forthcoming" about the difficulties facing the State than they would be in a more public forum, one member of the PAC acknowledged last evening.
However, the hearings are not expected to begin until July because leading political figures will be tied up with local and European election campaigns and the Irish EU presidency.
The Department of Finance last month acknowledged before the committee that about €300m worth of bills have already been clocked up by the various tribunals currently underway, including the Mahon tribunal into planning corruption in Dublin.
However, there are fears that the State could end up being liable for €1 billion worth of legal costs, once the fees of third-party figures, who do not have findings made against them by the tribunals, are met.
"The State got hit last year for a bill from the beef tribunal for €1m. How long ago was that?
"Ten years ago? Nobody has the slightest idea what this cost in the end," one TD told The Irish Times yesterday
"The public does not have the stomach to pay for these tribunals indefinitely."
The committee is understood to have been disappointed with a report on the issue from the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell.
"He can only investigate quantifiable spending. And that is the problem.
"Nobody can quantify what this is going to cost," another politician commented.
The Minister for Justice is to present proposals to the Cabinet shortly to ensure that the costs of future tribunals are curtailed, perhaps by limiting their duration and by writing much tighter terms of reference.
However, such legislation will not impact on existing tribunals, where senior counsel on the Morris tribunal, investigating alleged Garda corruption in Donegal, and the Moriarty tribunal earn €2,500 a day.
Senior counsel on the Mahon tribunal earn €2,250 per day.