The Department of the Taoiseach and the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) have spent at least €14.4 million on a seven-year inquiry into a land deal that was finalised only last week.
A breakdown of costs shows that the chair of the commission of investigation, Susan Gilvarry, received fees of about €500,000 in the period between 2023 and January of this year.
The inquiry began in 2017 and concluded that Nama had got the best price for the €1.6 billion Project Eagle lands while critical of a “success fee” that formed part of the deal.
The Department of the Taoiseach has confirmed that it has so far spent €7.7 million on the inquiry, which included about €2.8 million costs over the past two years.
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A detailed breakdown of the most recent expenditure showed €506,000 was paid to Susan Gilvarry in her role as sole member of the commission, which included a small amount of IT costs.
Another solicitor working on the inquiry, Susan Connolly, received fees of €443,510, while barrister Darren Lehane got payments of €454,729 over the two-year period.
Three other lawyers were paid between €100,000 and €200,000, according to the data released under freedom-of-information laws by the Department of the Taoiseach.
Another six received fees of between €13,800 and €95,000. The database covers all payments that were made by the department between January 2023 and January 2025 but may also cover some work from prior to those dates.
A bill of about €142,000 was run up on IT costs which included software licences, infrastructure backup, file management and the purchase of computers.
There were far more mundane costs as well including about €17,000 for the rental of photocopying machines and €1,000 for copying paper.
Four shredders cost €137, while €32,000 was paid to the Civil Service Credit Union for shared electricity costs for the inquiry premises at St Stephen’s Green.
There were stenography costs of about €2,000 and phone bills of about €5,800 paid to the telecom provider Eir.
Cleaning services – including a number of “deep cleans” of the offices – cost €16,000 and €10,500 was paid for specialised legal software. Asked about the expenditure, the Department of the Taoiseach did not respond to a request for comment.
A separate breakdown of figures from Nama shows expenditure of €6.78 million by it on the investigation, the vast majority of it paid to a single legal firm.
Nama said fees of €6.72 million had been paid to McCann Fitzgerald, with five-figure sums paid to two other legal practices.
