The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell, was in open conflict with the Mahon tribunal last night, following his decision to stand by his claim that it will cost €1 billion to finish its investigation.
Judge Alan Mahon told the Clerk of the Dáil, Kieran Coughlan, in a letter yesterday that he believed the cost "should not exceed €300 million". The total bill could be much less if some people are found not to have co-operated, and are left to pay both their own costs and part of the bills generated by the tribunal since its foundation in 1997, he said.
The Department of the Environment, he said, had been told last month that its public hearings would finish in early 2008, substantially reducing costs thereafter. Mr McDowell's €1 billion estimate had not "emanated from the tribunal", the judge said pointedly, in further evidence of worsening relations between the Government and the tribunal.
However, Mr McDowell's spokesman last night insisted Judge Mahon's figures were "inaccurate" and that he was "100 per cent happy that the tribunal could cost up to €1 billion". Speaking as the judge's letter arrived in Leinster House, Mr McDowell charged that top Mahon barristers had threatened to quit, throwing the tribunal's work into chaos, if the Government cut their €2,250-a-day fees.
The Department of the Environment insisted last night that it had never given a €1 billion estimate to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, or the Department of the Taoiseach.
However, it said it believed that the figure had been "an extrapolation" drawn from the experience gained to date from the tribunals, including the Mahon tribunal's latest report.
On Wednesday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said €400 million would be spent alone by Mahon on discovery orders, while another €100 million would be spent on third-party costs and a further €100 million on "outstanding legal fees".
Yesterday, he said he has been told that "one of the tribunals" could "conservatively" cost "over a billion", while his department's budget this year to pay for the Moriarty tribunal could be consumed by one individual.
Rejecting charges that he wanted to bring Mahon to a halt, Mr Ahern said: "I want to see them finish because the last thing I personally want to see is that anyone could ever say I closed down something."
Meanwhile, the secretary general of the Department of Finance, David Doyle, has said he is not aware that tribunals are keeping any records noting the work being done by legal teams on behalf of witnesses, etc.
Third-party costs in past tribunals, such as the 1990s investigation into the beef industry, have averaged at twice the fees paid to the legal teams representing the central figures.
The Tribunals of Inquiry Evidence Bill, which appeared briefly on the Dáil's agenda late last year, only to quickly disappear, would force tribunals to offer an estimate for their total cost within three months of formation.
So far, existing tribunals have cost €180 million, though Mr Doyle said that the Moriarty tribunal, which has already cost €26 million, has so far paid out "not a single penny" in third-party costs.
Bills for third-party costs left by the beef tribunal, chaired by the former Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Liam Hamilton, are still being received by the Department of Finance, the Dáil was told last year.
Last night, sources within Government indicated that Judge Mahon had confirmed by letter on February 2nd that it is not possible to put an estimate on third-party costs.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said Judge Mahon's letter showed that "you can't believe a word the Minister for Justice says" and that he "would do anything to keep his political masters in power".
"The Tánaiste's outburst yesterday was a blatant attempt to deflect attention from the damning findings of the Moriarty tribunal against the former leader of Fianna Fáil," Mr Kenny said.
Labour TD Eamon Gilmore said the Mahon letter called the credibility of both the Minister for Justice and the Minister for the Environment into question, and required an explanation from both of them.