Vol. 316 No. 14
I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £413,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1979, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Attorney General.
Will the Minister elaborate on this Supplementary Estimate?
The Supplementary Estimate under this Vote is required inter alia to defray the legal cost of the tribunal of inquiry into the Whiddy Island disaster. It could not, of course, have been foreseen that an item of expenditure of this magnitude would arise on the Vote and, therefore, £195,000 extra is being provided in respect of the legal costs of the inquiry. The Supplementary Estimate is required in advance of the other Finance group Estimates as there are no funds left in the relevant subheads with which to pay out outstanding legal fees.
I should point out that a Supplementary Estimate has already been taken on the Vote for Tourism and Transport providing, inter alia, an extra £461,000 in respect of certain costs of the Whiddy Island inquiry. Those costs were in respect of accommodation, providing expert witnesses and so on and did not relate to the legal costs of the inquiry. In addition to what I mentioned, the following extra costs arise: salaries, £180,000; fees to counsel, £25,000; general law expenses, £7,000 and Law Reform Commission, £6,000. Apart from the item of fees to counsel these are primarily on the basis of implementing the first phase of the national understanding and, in certain grades, the interim increase of 8½ per cent recommended by the Devlin Review Group and certain other grade increases.
I should like to ask the Minister the reason for the increase in fees to counsel, apart from the Whiddy Island inquiry? They appear to be running more than 20 per cent above the estimated level, exclusive of the Whiddy Island inquiry.
This subhead provides for payment of fees due to counsel engaged on behalf of the Attorney General. Fees paid to counsel arising from the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Whiddy Island disaster up to end of September 1979 were £28,560. Fees outstanding at that date amount to £36,680. It is estimated that the total legal costs of the tribunal arising under this subhead will be of the order of £120,000. The balance of the additional amount required, the £25,000 that I referred to, arises from increased legal costs as a result of a higher than anticipated number of State cases and increased fee levels.
In the light of the information furnished can the Minister give an estimate of the total cost of the Tribunal of Inquiry? Does the Minister anticipate that there will be any possibility of recovery by the State of the moneys we are now voting?
The answer to the first question is that I cannot give an estimate at this stage of the total ultimate cost. In regard to the second question, this will depend on the findings of the Tribunal and, possibly, on legal proceedings which might follow those findings. I cannot anticipate what will emerge from that.
