The office of the High Court Taxing Master was established in 1961, and there are two Taxing Masters. Their task is to determine the amount of costs payable by the losing party in the High Court, where the costs are not agreed between the parties.
If there is a dispute about costs in the Circuit Court, it is decided by the County Registrar, who must be either a solicitor or a barrister of eight years' standing.
The Taxing Master is appointed by the Government of the day from the ranks of the solicitors' profession, and must have at least 10 years' experience. At the moment the two Taxing Masters are Charles Moran and James Flynn. Mr Moran rarely hits the headlines, but his rulings sometimes do.
It was he who decided that Liam Lawlor should pay the costs of his challenges to the Flood Tribunal, which amounted to almost €730,000. He also reduced the money due to Mr Lawlor's own legal team.
Mr Moran also awarded about €1.5 million in legal costs to RTÉ and its chief news correspondent, Charlie Bird, following the failure of the former Fianna Fáil TD Beverly Cooper Flynn in her libel case against them.
Mr Flynn has been in the news both because of his official role and as a litigant.
He first came to public attention in 1996 when he awarded £6.7 million to Larry Goodman for costs incurred in the Beef Tribunal, including the cost of hotels, catering, consultants and a public relations team.
Some of his decisions have been successfully appealed to the High Court.
Finding against his award of nil costs to the Workers Party arising out of the De Rossa/ Independent Newspapers libel trial, Mr Justice Geoghegan referred to his "colourful language", saying it would not give any confidence to the WP that there would be an unbiased ruling.
He has gone to court himself both here and in London. In the High Court in Dublin he sought to prevent the solicitors to whom he sold his practice from changing its name, saying he intended his son, who was 11 at the time he became Taxing Master, to enter the firm.
Two years ago in the High Court in London he sued a former friend and collector of war memorabilia for allegedly selling him fake items worth £160,750 (€235,000), including a baton said to have been used by Nazi Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering. The case was settled.