€2m overpayment of Tribunal Counsel’s Fees
Media Alert: “Overpayment of €1.8m to Moriarty barristers” - Sunday Business Post, 28 November 2010
http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/overpayment-of-18m-to-moriarty-barristers-53122.html
The Comptroller and Auditor General published a Special Report on the costs associated with Tribunals of Inquiry in December 2008. This report dealt with the costs associated with the Moriarty, Mahon and Morris Tribunals and the projected total costs of those Tribunals. A full copy of this Special Report of the C&AG can be accessed via the link below:
The cost of the Moriarty Tribunal was specifically addressed at Chapter 6 of the C&AG’s Special Report. Section 6.24 of the Report briefly addressed an issue relating to the fees payable to Moriarty Tribunal Counsel which had never been raised publicly before. This section read as follows:
6.24 Revised fee rates were agreed for the Moriarty Tribunal with effect from 24 May 2002. Concluding brief fees were set at €30,000 and €20,000 for senior and junior counsel respectively. The senior counsel daily refresher fee agreed was €2,250 but a rate of €2,500 was notified to the Tribunal in error. The Department of Finance sanctioned the higher rate quoted to the two senior counsel involved on a personal basis. (emphasis added)
The two Senior Counsel referenced here were former Tribunal Counsel John Coughlan SC and the Tribunal’s lead Counsel, Jerry Healy SC. In essence, both Mr. Healy and Mr. Coughlan were paid an additional €250 per day over and above the correct rate which ought to have applied as and from 24 May 2002. Indeed, the €2,250 daily rate was the rate that was agreed and was paid to Senior Counsel at the Mahon Tribunal. As such, both Senior Counsel to the Moriarty Tribunal received an effective increase of 10% on their applicable daily rate as a result of this “error”.
This 10% uplift continued for almost 9 years; right up to the conclusion of the Tribunal’s work. All reductions applied to Counsel’s fees since 2002 have always been implemented on a percentage basis; therefore they have been applied as a percentage reduction to what was itself an erroneously inflated figure that emerged in May 2002.
The ”error” also signifiantly increased the earnings of the Tribunal’s third Senior Counsel, Ms Jacqui O’Brien. This was clear from Para 6.25 of the Report which confirmed that Ms. O’Brien’s daily rate was directly linked to the (incorrect) fee paid to Jerry Healy SC and John Coughlan.
6.25 Although the revised junior counsel daily refresher fee agreed for all tribunals in 2002 was €1,500, a junior counsel in the Moriarty Tribunal received a daily rate higher than equivalent junior counsel because it was felt that the individual would have been appointed senior counsel but for the fact they were working for the Tribunal. The rate was effectively 80% of the senior counsel rate i.e. €2,000. In October 2003 the individual was appointed senior counsel but continues to be remunerated at a daily rate of €2,000. (emphasis added)
The relevant extract from the C&AG report can be accessed via the link below:
Extract from C&AG Report- Chapter 6
As such, Ms. O’Brien also benefitted from this “error” in that her daily rate was set as a fixed percentage of the erroneous rate set for Messrs Coughlan and Healy. As such, Ms. O’Brien also erroneously received the benefit of the 10% uplift from 24 May 2002, which uplift she continued to enjoy for almost 9 years.
Since the date of this error in May 2002, the three Moriarty Tribunal Senior Counsel have been paid approx. €20m in legal fees. Allowing for the fact that 10% was effectively paid since that date as a result of this “error”, then about €2,000,000 has therefore been needlessly paid out by the State to the 3 Senior Counsel to the Moriarty Tribunal.
This matter has never been addressed or rectified by the Department of Finance or by the Department of An Taoiseach.
“Tribunal lawyers get to keep €1m paid out after typing error” – Irish Independent, 16 February 2009
“McCarthy argued for lawyers’ rise” – Sunday Times, 16 August 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6797854.ece
