Tribunals and other public inquiries cost taxpayers €191.82 million up to the end of last year, the Taoiseach told the Dáil. Mr Ahern said that €138.92 million of this was spent on legal costs.
This was revealed by Mr Ahern amid exchanges in which the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, criticised the absence of an interim report from the Moriarty tribunal.
Responding to Opposition criticism of the scale of the costs involved, the Taoiseach said that the House had set up the tribunals.
"We gave them terms of reference. We took on people to serve on them. At the time it was not easy to get some people to move from their positions to take up that work," he added.
"The tribunals have gone on for a long time. I believe those on the tribunals would say that under their terms of reference these were matters they had to look into and investigate and they are doing that. We have to deal with these matters in that way and see them through."
Mr Ahern revealed that the Moriarty tribunal is expected to cost taxpayers an estimated €10.5 million this year. He said the Moriarty tribunal had cost €18.6 million since 1997. "This includes fees paid to counsel for the tribunal and administration costs incurred to date since the establishment of the tribunal," he added.
Mr Ahern added that the total payment made to the legal team was €13.6 million up to the end of last year.
Mr Kenny said the fact that no interim report had been produced by the tribunal was simply beyond belief.
"The Flood and Mahon tribunals have published four interim reports, the most recent one informing the nation of the current state of the tribunal in terms of workload and projected timescale," he said.
"In its terms of reference, the Moriarty has the discretion to produce interim reports. This appears to be running into the sand."
Mr Kenny suggested that some facility could be arranged to require the Moriarty tribunal either to produce an interim report or set a definitive date to have it wound up when a final report could be produced.
He added that the legal personnel "appear to have the upper hand" at the tribunal.
Mr Ahern said he had no control over such issues. He added that when the previous minister for finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy, had announced new rates for legal fees, the Attorney General was requested to contact all the tribunals to come to a conclusion time from which the new rates would be applicable. In the case of the Moriarty tribunal, the period agreed was January 11th, 2006.
"It is hoped to complete the tribunal by that date," he said. "It is also the date from which the new rates will apply, and, I hope, it is the date on which the tribunal will have completed its work."
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said that given the various issues which had arisen in recent years, such as Army deafness claims and so on, he had comforted himself in the knowledge that it was a redistribution of wealth and could be justified on those grounds.
"I have greater difficulty applying that approach to my learned friends," he added.
Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said the information given by the Taoiseach was shocking. "The piecemeal approach does not address the core issue of the excessive cost of legal fees for both senior and junior counsel representation at the Moriarty tribunal and all the other tribunals," he said.
The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said the costs associated with the Moriarty tribunal were astronomical.
Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist Party, Dublin West) said the cost had increased "because for eight years the Taoiseach and his Government have included in their herd of sacred cows, along with land speculators and developers, the elite of the barrister profession as untouchables".
