The Competition Authority should examine the monopolistic position of legal professionals in order to save the State large legal bills for future tribunals, according to UCD economist Dr Frank Barry.

Presenting a paper on the cost of tribunals, at the Kenmare Economic Conference, Dr Barry and Dr John O'Dowd of the Faculty of Law said there was a fair amount of evidence that the market for barristers is monopolised by legal insiders. However, this was hotly disputed by UCD economist Mr Moore McDowell.

To reduce the cost of future tribunals Dr Barry also recommended developing an in-house team specifically for inquiries as well as giving additional powers to the standards and public office commission and relaxing the libel laws.

Irish legal fees are very high by international standards. The Beef Tribunal lawyers as well as many barristers in Irish courts earn more per day than do some of the world's most famous lawyers.

Most of the lawyers who were part of the O.J. Simpson "dream team" earned significantly less than Irish lawyers. According to Dr Barry, the recent judgment in favour of TD Liam Lawlor against the Flood Tribunal will seriously reduce the efficiency with which tribunals can operate and legislation is needed to prevent this.

He added that there is also an argument that the DPP should be more willing to run test cases while some consideration could also be given to the weakening of the constitutional protection to one's "good name".

The Irish and US systems take opposite sides on the issue of the right to good name versus freedom of speech.

A final alternative, since the main purpose of the tribunal has been to get issues of public concern into the public domain, would be to relax the libel laws along the lines suggested in the 1991 Report of the Law Reform Commission, according to Dr Barry.