The Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments (the Mahon Tribunal) was established in October 1997 and published its Final Report in March 2012. The work of the Tribunal at present is largely focused on the settlement of the remainder of third party and court costs incurred during the work of the Tribunal. My Department's role is to arrange payment of such fees and costs as have been directed by the Chairman of the Tribunal and approved by Legal Cost Accountants.
On foot of a Supreme Court decision of March 2005, some parties against whom the Tribunal made findings of non-cooperation were entitled to claim their full costs. The process to claim payment of these costs is for a costs order to issue and for a bill of costs to be submitted. This is subject to examination by Legal Cost Accountants acting on behalf of the State. When a final agreed costs figure is settled, my Department proceeds to issue payment.
The following parties have completed this process to date, and payments have issued as follows: €1,745,487.30 in respect of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering (JMSE); and €1,142,879.67 in respect of Thomas Brennan & Joseph McGowan.
I have been advised by the Tribunal that the costs that now will be paid to a small number of third parties arising from issues that have arisen with certain adverse findings made by Mr Justice Flood in his 2nd and 3rd Interim Reports in 2002 and 2003, respectively, are costs which had these adverse findings not been made would have been properly payable to the said third parties at that time.
The Tribunal estimated in 2014 that the total costs of its deliberations would amount to approximately €159m. This figure was calculated on the basis that all parties would receive all of their costs. The recent findings of the Supreme Court in relation to Mr. George Redmond will not therefore have any effect on this estimate.
