Who is Jerry Healy SC?
Jeremiah Healy SC was called to the Irish Bar in 1979 and became a Senior Counsel in 1995. A Cork native, he has practiced on the Cork Circuit. Mr. Healy was appointed by Mr. Justice Michael Moriarty to the Moriarty Tribunal in 1997 and continues to act as the Lead Senior Counsel to the Tribunal.
Mr. Healy is the highest paid “Tribunal Millionaire” in the history of the State, having earned in excess of €9.5m (excluding expenses) since his appointment in 1997. No other Barrister has earned more than Jerry Healy SC from an Irish Tribunal of Inquiry.
It is not known at what point Mr. Healy’s previous involvement with the Persona consortium was made known to the Tribunal Chairman, or indeed whether Mr. Healy’s previous experience with Persona was a factor that was considered at the time of his appointment to the Tribunal in 1997. Tribunal appointments are at the sole discretion of the Tribunal Chairman and the criteria and selection processes applied are not publicly known.
The full extent of Mr. Healy’s personal or professional involvement with individuals and /or entities associated with the Persona consortium in unknown publicly. Furthermore, the amount of fees paid to Mr. Healy by Persona or related persons / entities is also unknown publicly.
Mr. Healy has taken the lead role on the part of the Tribunal’s legal team in negotiating fees increases and other cost related matters since the Tribunal was established. This included lengthy exchanges with the Department of An Taoiseach and the Department of Finance in 2002 when Mr. Healy negotiated an increase in his daily rate (and that of his colleague John Coughlan SC) to €2,500. Some of these exchanges of correspondence regarding claims for even higher fees to be paid as released under the Freedom of Information Acts are set out in the link below. The redactions were put in place by Department of An Taoiseach (note: some of the copies as provided by Department of An Taoiseach are of poor quality).
“Moriarty lawyers ‘pushed for pay rise’” – Sunday Times, 19 April 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6123172.ece
“McCarthy argued for lawyers’ rise” – Sunday Times, 16 August 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6797854.ece
