Marie O'Halloran
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has rejected claims that it would be inappropriate for him to meet the chairman of the Mahon tribunal to discuss its costs and the modules remaining to be investigated.
Mr Roche also rejected calls in the Dáil by Labour's environment spokesman, Eamonn Gilmore, that he should publish all the correspondence between himself and the Mahon tribunal.
Mr Gilmore said that the Oireachtas and not the Government had established the tribunal, which is investigating planning matters. Therefore it was inappropriate for the Minister to meet the tribunal chairman to discuss costs and additional modules to be investigated.
He also insisted that the correspondence between the Minister and the tribunal was the property of the House and should, therefore, be put into the Oireachtas library.
The discussion follows the controversy over the costs of the tribunal, which Minister for Justice Michael McDowell claimed could be up to €1 billion. In a letter to Mr McDowell which became public, tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon said that costs could be less than €300 million overall.
Mr Roche told the House that "all correspondence is covered by a confidentiality requirement" and to break confidentiality "would show discourtesy to the tribunal". It would also be misleading to release incomplete correspondence.
He added that the tribunal chairman had invited him to a meeting and "it would be the height of discourtesy to refuse".
Mr Roche said that as Minister he had a duty to "do the will of the House", but he also had a responsibility to "keep in mind the issue of costs and finality in the tribunals".
Following reports that the Minister was to bring a memorandum to Government on the ending of the higher rate of daily fees for lawyers, Mr Gilmore asked if the Government had decided to implement the lower rate from March 31st.
Mr Roche said "no decision was made today to change the decision made previously" that lower rates would apply from that date. He said that he would "refer back to the Government after I have had my discussions with Judge Mahon" and added: "There is to be a dialogue between me and the tribunal on the timetable issue."
The Department of the Environment "does not have access to the detailed records of the tribunal, which would be a necessary staring point for any accurate estimation of the overall cost of the tribunal", Mr Roche said.
He said that so far the tribunal had cost more than €62 million. Of almost €16.2 million spent last year, €6.62 million was for the legal fees of third parties who were before the tribunal between 1997 and 2002.