The Moriarty tribunal inquiring into payments to politicians has cost taxpayers €22.5 million since it was set up in 1997, the Dáil was told.
So far, €17.1 million has been paid to the tribunal's legal team, and there is no legislation available yet to reduce legal fees.
The Taoiseach said that in July 2004 the Government decided to apply a new scale of legal fees payable in respect of any new tribunals and inquiries established on or after September 1st of that year. This would have substantially reduced legal costs.
At the time, there was no statutory power to reduce the fees payable to lawyers in the existing tribunals and inquiries. A Bill to this end was drafted, but it was decided to await publication of the Law Reform Commission's report on tribunals before any legislative proposal was published.
After the publication of the report of the commission, the earlier draft Bill had been subsumed into a much larger and more comprehensive Bill, which would be published within the next few weeks. Therefore there was currently no statutory power to reduce the legal fees, and none would be available until the Bill was enacted by the House.
He was replying to FG leader Enda Kenny, and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin of Sinn Féin, who said that January 11th was the original date by which the new low fees were to have operated.
Mr Ahern said he understood that the tribunal's report would be available at the end of the year.
