ANALYSIS:Massive costs from the tribunals may become payable during a period of Government restraint, writes COLM KEENA
THE MEASURES mooted at the weekend by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan in relation to the cost of the tribunals are unlikely to have any appreciable impact on the oncoming train that is tribunal third party legal costs.
Probably next year, the two main tribunals are going to start taking up their tents and inviting those people who are due their costs to send in their bills.
Third party costs are the legal and other costs incurred by witnesses who appeared before the tribunals, or by persons or bodies that were requested or ordered by the tribunals to carry out work related to the tribunals' inquiries. They are not paid until after the tribunals issue their reports.
No one knows the size of the bills that will be sent in, but the figures being bandied around are all well in excess of €500 million.
The Moriarty and Mahon tribunals have been around since 1997. It is too late now for the Government to do much about them.
"The costs have been incurred. These bills are in the post," was how one solicitor who represents a party before one of the tribunals put it yesterday.
The bills were always going to cause scandal because of their size but the fact that they now look likely to be arriving at the exchequer's door in the middle of hard times and Government cutbacks, will add to the outrage.
Many of the barristers and solicitors concerned have been waiting for years for their fees, and will not be paid interest to compensate for the inflation that has occurred in the meantime, though this is unlikely to excite public sympathy.
In real money terms this means the fees will be paid at a substantial discount, though the sums involved with still be huge.
Lenihan said the Government is "anxious to ensure that interest should not accrue on costs." This is understood to be a reference to non-legal costs accrued by third parties, though his department would not elaborate on the matter yesterday.
Many bodies, such as banks, have incurred significant costs over the years delving into their archives and following money trails on behalf of the tribunals. It seems the Government is anxious to prevent them winning an argument that they should be paid their costs with interest. Sources say the practice up to now is that interest would not be paid on such costs.
Lenihan has in correspondence told the departments to which the tribunals report to contact the tribunals and tell them that once public hearings are over, the legal staff associated with the public hearings should not longer be paid. The Moriarty tribunal has finished its public hearings for some time now but it appears it still has its full complement of staff. Senior barristers with the tribunal are paid up to €2,750 per day. The Mahon tribunal may complete its hearings by the end of the year.
It is expected the Moriarty tribunal will be sending out its preliminary findings - on matters concerning the former minister Michael Lowry - to affected parties in the autumn. A challenge in the courts prior to the issuing of the final report is considered inevitable, according to a lawyer working for one of the parties set to feature strongly in the report. So the report may well be delayed and may not issue until later in 2009.
If Lenihan's policy is followed, it would seem Mr Justice Moriarty will have to handle these matters with a reduced staff.
Lenihan's view that the judges work on their reports without the assistance of the legal staff who are on such generous daily rates of pay may well save the taxpayer a few hundred thousand euro, or even €1 million, but this will have no effect on the huge third party legal bills that the tribunals have incurred over the past decade.