The Government has abandoned plans to cut the pay of lawyers at the Mahon tribunal from the end of this week. It means that senior counsel will continue to be paid almost €2,500 a day rather than a new lower fee of around €950 a day.
The new scale of fees was due to come into effect on March 31st but met with opposition from the tribunal.
The Cabinet made a decision yesterday not to force the issue to a confrontation and agreed to pay the higher legal fees for the foreseeable future.
A Government spokeswoman said last night that there was a risk of the tribunal collapsing or going into suspension, if the fees were cut, and the Government was not prepared to take that chance.
She said that negotiations between Minister for the Environment Dick Roche and tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon would continue but in the meantime the higher rate of fees would continue to be paid.
"We are not in a position to move to reduced fees.
"It is regretful that we can't move to lower the scale of fees," she said. In recent months Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tánaiste Michael McDowell have criticised the level of fees being paid to the tribunal lawyers.
Mr McDowell said in February that the Mahon tribunal would ultimately cost the taxpayer over €1 billion if it was allowed to continue at its current rate.
A spokesman for the Tánaiste said last night that Mr McDowell had been within his rights to raise the issue but he supported the decision taken yesterday by the Government.
In July, 2004, former minister for finance Charlie McCreevy announced the Government would introduce a lower fee system from March 31st, 2007, after being told by the tribunal that it would be finished its public hearings by this date.
The lower fee regime would have kicked in automatically at the end of the week were it not for the Government decision yesterday to leave them at their current higher level.
A team made up of representatives from the Mahon tribunal, the Attorney's General's office and the Departments of Finance and the Environment was established to examine all the cost issues surrounding the long-running planning tribunal. That team reported back to Mr Roche, before yesterday's Cabinet meeting.
The Minister has also had a number of meetings with Judge Mahon.
The judge is believed to have vigorously disputed the claim by Mr McDowell that the final bill for the tribunal will exceed €1 billion, maintaining that the cost would be closer to €300 million even if all third party costs had to be paid by the State.
Given that the tribunal has the power not to allow costs to witnesses who have obstructed its work and to bill them with some of its own costs, the final cost to the taxpayer could be much less.
In his meetings with Mr Roche, Judge Mahon is understood to have pointed out that much of the delay in the tribunal's schedule was caused by witnesses who took High Court actions challenging its right to do its work.
The Taoiseach told the Dáil yesterday that there would not be a cut in the fees being paid to the Moriarty tribunal lawyers either.
Both the Moriarty and the Mahon, previously Flood, tribunals were established by the Dáil in the autumn of 1997.
