""The account for 2024 includes, I think, the last tranche of the payment to our own legal team. So I think the total figure is €725,000," the clerk of the Dáil Peter Finnegan said. "All of the in-house solicitors work was done by the OPLA, so that's why the bill came in at 725 (thousand euro). Had we gone outside, certainly it would be considerably higher.""
""The case is obviously finished now and there was three sets of proceedings that there was costs awarded. So the first set of proceedings was the original High Court case where the court awarded Ms Kerins her full costs. So we have in a bill from Ms Kerins from the legal team for that, and that's been worked through by a legal cost accountant on our behalf. The amount is 2.1 million, and that's for her solicitors' fees and her barristers' fees.""
An accountant is examining legal costs relating to a High Court case that found in Ms Kerins' favour in 2019. Legal costs for two other related matters remain to be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Ms Kerins was questioned by a committee in 2014 and subsequently pursued legal action against the Committee of Public Accounts. The Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the committee acted outside its terms of reference. The Dáil clerk reported a €725,000 in-house legal bill for 2024 and a separate €2.1 million bill from Ms Kerins for solicitors' and barristers' fees. Additional fees from a second High Court action and the Supreme Court hearing are still outstanding and have not been estimated.
Read at Irish Independent
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