The mounting cost of public tribunals is further revealed in confidential records held by a Dáil committee that show the State has spent almost €190 million on the inquiries since 1991.
With lawyers receiving more than €132 million, the figures underestimate the eventual liability of the Exchequer because they do not include awards for third-party legal costs, which have yet to be decided.
Significant sums are being paid to legal teams acting for Government departments and other State bodies.
A detailed breakdown of the figures was outlined in private correspondence from the Government to the Committee of Public Accounts, which is considering how to present the information before the Oireachtas.
The figures also reveal that the €26 million expenditure on the long-finished Beef tribunal continued until last year, when the Department of Agriculture spent €36,151 on work arising from the investigation.
With senior counsel receiving €2,500 per day from some tribunals and junior counsel receiving €2,000, the figures show that lawyers receive almost 70 per cent of all tribunal expenditure.
The most expensive inquiry to date was the Lindsay tribunal, the hepatitis C and HIV compensation investigation, which cost €75 million, of which €63 million were legal costs.
This does not include awards of €388 million and reparation-fund awards of €77 million.
The planning tribunal has already cost €30.45 million, with legal costs at €18.64 million. Seven planning-tribunal barristers have received payment of more than €1 million and two of those, Mr John Gallagher SC and Mr Desmond O'Neill SC, have received more than €2 million.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse has already cost €11.1 million and the provision for expenditure this year is €15.35 million. Separate payments to the legal team acting for the Department of Education have already reached €1.05 million.
A separate inquiry into the handling of child abuse allegations by the Diocese of Ferns has cost €204,292, with legal costs at €142,780.
The records show that the State's provision for the Moriarty tribunal, currently examining the award of the second mobile phone licence, has been increased to €10.32 million for 2004 from €3.66 million in 2003. The increase will cover costs that may arise if the inquiry finishes its work this year.
The Moriarty tribunal has cost €15.51 million since 1997, when its investigation into the affairs of former taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey and former minister Michael Lowry was initiated.
The Morris tribunal, which is examining allegations of corruption against some gardaí in Co Donegal, has already cost €9.2 million, of which €3.49 million were legal costs. The Garda legal team received €1.05 million.
The Barr inquiry into the fatal shooting of John Carthy by gardaí has cost €3.97 million, with legal costs at €2.4 million. The Garda Commissioner's legal team has received €235,647.
The organ-retention inquiry has already cost €14.13 million, with legal costs at €5.98 million.
The Barron inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 has cost €2.69 million.
