The Department of the Environment has paid out almost €8 million to lawyers over the last two years.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, said yesterday the composite amount spent by his Department on legal fees for all purposes was €4.232 million last year and €3.505 million to date in 2004.
The Fine Gael spokesman on Justice and Law Reform, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, who tabled a series of parliamentary questions on legal fees, said the Government should have put legal services out to tender. A number of Government departments, including Justice, were unable to provide details of legal payments in the time available to answer the parliamentary question.
