Tribunals have cost the Exchequer an estimated €200 million, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil yesterday.
Mr Ahern was replying to Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, who suggested that the tribunals should restrict themselves to their core business.
Agreeing that Mr Rabbitte had made a valid point, Mr Ahern said it was not his intention that the tribunals should run so long - as anybody who looked at the Dáil record would conclude - when he participated with others in setting them up, although obviously he had a responsibility as Taoiseach.
"As some of my staff have shown me a number of times, at that stage all of us indicated that two years seemed to be an awful long time for a tribunal to come to a conclusion. On one occasion in 1999 deputies agreed that if the tribunal went to the summer of 2000 we could live with that."
Mr Ahern said the costs incurred by his department for the Moriarty tribunal this year amounted to €4 million.
"However, provision for an additional €6.5 million has been made to cover costs such as report publication and some element of award of legal costs in the event that the tribunal completes its work in 2005. The overall estimated for 2005, therefore, is €10.583 million."
Mr Ahern said the total cost to his department since 1997 to April of this year was €19,619,388.
This included fees paid to counsel for the tribunal and administration costs incurred since its establishment. The total payment to the legal team up to April was €14,660,792.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the figures were truly extraordinary. "The Moriarty tribunal was established in 1997 by this House with a remit to determine particular facts. It is now in its ninth year, but has not produced a report of any kind, including an interim report."
Mr Ahern said, in discussions with the Moriarty tribunal, a new schedule of fees would come into place in January.
"Under the new fees arrangement - negotiated by the previous minister for finance - which would come into effect at that stage, the set fee to be paid to a senior counsel will be based on the current annual salary of a High Court counsel, plus 15 per cent in respect of pension contributions. Related payments will be made to other legal staff, including barristers and solicitors."
Mr Ahern added that he hoped the tribunal could complete its work and report by then.
Mr Rabbitte suggested it was unlikely that between now and January a great deal more progress would be made.
"Is it not possible for this House to give a direction to the Moriarty tribunal and others to cause them to focus on their core business?"
Mr Ahern said he hoped to be alive for another few years, but the difficulty was that if they did not keep to the issues the tribunals would go on forever. A further difficulty was the relevance of issues dating back to 1997.
"They are important, but if one does not bring them to a conclusion they will go on and on."
