The Government has conceded pay rises worth up to €800 a day to Flood and Moriarty tribunal lawyers after colleagues working on the inquiry into alleged Garda corruption secured a better rate.
The move will cost taxpayers millions, given that the tribunals led by Mr Justice Michael Moriarty and Mr Justice Feargus Flood are now expected to run for several more years.
Negotiations began with the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of the Environment after the Department of Justice agreed a €2,500 daily rate for senior counsel working on the Morris tribunal.
Headed by Mr Justice Frederick Morris, the tribunal is investigating allegations that members of the Garda Síochána in Co Donegal engaged "in unethical and criminal behaviour".
The daily fee for the Moriarty tribunal's two senior counsel, Mr John Coughlan SC and Mr Jerry Healy SC, rises to €2,500 a day from €1,715, while the pay of Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, junior counsel, jumps by €857 a day to €2,000.
The Moriarty tribunal will resume public sittings shortly when it will take public evidence from key figures involved in the granting of the mobile telephone licence to Esat Digifone.
Meanwhile, the daily fee for senior and junior counsel on the Flood tribunal has increased to €2,250 and €1,500.
Last night, the Department of the Environment said the Flood Tribunal's legal team has cost €10.1m in fees, though this bill would also include solicitors' and researchers' costs.
"The daily fees have recently been increased. The fees are in line with recently established tribunals," the Department of the Environment told The Irish Times last night.
So far, Mr John Gallagher SC has earned €1.747m from the planning tribunal since its foundation in December 1997, while Mr Patrick Hanratty SC has earned €1.46m.
Mr Patrick Quinn SC, who joined the tribunal in September 2001, has earned €354,842; Mr Desmond O'Neill, who joined in August 1998, has earned €1.527m, while Ms Patricia Dillon, who began as a junior counsel in 1998, has earned €1.293m.
Ms Eunice O'Raw has earned €1.072m, while another junior counsel, Ms Mairead Coghlan, who began as a tribunal researcher in late 1997, has earned €890,666.
Publishing his recent devastating findings against Mr Ray Burke, Mr Justice Flood pointedly said that the tribunal's work has already led to the payment of €34.5m worth of taxes, far more than the tribunal has cost to date.
However, the increases will have major knock-on implications once the two judges decide which, if any, of the witnesses called before them should have their fees paid by the State.
