Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 February 2004
118 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Finance the amount spent by his Department on legal advice and lawyers in each of past three years; and the amount paid out in settlement of legal proceedings against his Department, including cases settled prior to coming to court in each of the past three years, omitting expenses relating to tribunals of inquiry. [5468/04]
View answerIn general, my Department uses the services of the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, and engages outside legal advisors in circumstances requiring legal advice of a specific and-or specialist nature. My Department has also had secondments to it from private sector legal firms. The following table shows the amount spent by my Department in each year 2001 to 2003 on legal advice and lawyers, including secondments, and on settlement of legal proceedings, including cases settled prior to going to court. My Department did not have expenditure relating to tribunals of inquiry in the years in question.
|
Legal Advice |
Settlements |
|
|
€ |
€ |
|
|
2001 |
2,170,762 |
83,920 |
|
2002 |
611,240 |
25,395 |
|
2003 |
240,880 |
322,865 |
Officials in my Department negotiated a settlement, arrived at in 2003, of a large number of equality claims against all Departments lodged by the Civil and Public Service Union which involved a total cost of approximately €36 million. My Department's element of that settlement is included in the figure above for settlements in 2003.
