Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea has dismissed claims that allegations of solicitors overcharging army deafness claimants cannot be investigated.
Over 16,700 claims have been lodged by current and former members of the defence forces who claim their hearing was damaged in the course of duty.
The State undertook to cover the legal costs in seeking compensation, but around 130 claimants have
Minister of Defence Willie O'Dea
alleged their solicitors also charged them fees.
Mr O'Dea today said he had been in contact with the Law Society for the past seven months urging them to investigate.
He also rejected the suggestion that because some of the allegations are over five years' old, they cannot be investigated because the Bill of Costs has been disposed of by the solicitors.
"It would appear from the majority of inquiries received, that solicitors had not provided detailed Bills of Costs to clients at the time of the settlements.
"Furthermore solicitors and the Law Society now appear to be invoking a rule that it will not investigate cases where the Bill of Costs is more than 5-years old.
"I believe there is absolutely no justification for this rule and places claimants in a grossly unfair disadvantage," Mr O'Dea said.
He said his department was willing to request the Bill of Costs from the Chief State Solicitors and would forward it to the relevant solicitors and notify the complainants.
Fine Gael defence spokesman Billy Timmins referred to department figures showing solicitors were paid €95 million for acting on behalf of clients.
"These huge legal costs and any incidence of overcharging must be fully investigated," Mr Timmins said..
He urged Mr O'Dea to step up pressure on the Law Society to investigate and use its powers to order a solicitor to repay clients where overcharging is uncovered.
The Society argues that it does not have the statutory power to investigate complaints older than five years.
It says there had been few complaints of overcharging until overcharging by solicitors serving clients at the Residential Institutions Redress Board emerged late last year.
Director general Ken Murphy said: "There is certainly no lack of will on the Society's part to investigate these complaints and we are investigating those complaints which are not effected by the statutory time limits.
"However we can only investigate in accordance with our statutory powers."
Some €281 million has been paid in damages to 15,579 claimants leaving just over 1,100 outstanding. Payments have averaged close to €11,000 and the overall cost of the scheme is expected to be around €300 million.