Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 February 2004
205 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the amount spent by his Department on legal advice and lawyers in each of the past three years; and the amount paid 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. [5461/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe precise information sought in the question is not maintained centrally in my Department, except for broad accounting purposes and accordingly, it may be necessary to check a number of individual files to ensure that the response will be as accurate as possible. For this reason, it is not possible, in the relatively short length of time available to me between the putting down of a question and scheduled day for its reply, to compile all of the information sought in the question. However, I will write to the Deputy in the near future conveying to him as much of the information as is reasonably available from existing files, without having my Department engage in exhaustive research which would not be warranted, and which could be carried out only at the expense of other important work.
By way of completeness, I should inform the Deputy that in the normal course of the administration of the affairs of any Department, regular consultation with the Office of the Chief State Solicitor and with the Office of the Attorney General is a matter of routine. This is particularly true of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform because of the quasi-legal aspects of many of its functions. Such legal advice is not charged for and, accordingly, no information as to its costs is available.
Furthermore, when a legal action is taken in the courts, against the Department, or against another Government agency and this Department is conjoined as a defendant, it is normal practice for the Chief State Solicitor to act as this Department's solicitor for the purposes of the proceedings. This is the normal procedure for all Departments. Not only does the Chief State Solicitor's Office and the Attorney General's Office act as legal agents of this Department for the purposes for the proceedings, they also select the relevant legal representation that is to be made available to the defence and decide the level of legal costs to be incurred. Such costs are not readily available from the records of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, so I have referred that aspect of the question to the Office of the Chief State Solicitor for direct reply to the Deputy.
