AG’s office warns Government on effect of cuts

Government departments will have to increase their spending on expensive external legal advice if the budget of the attorney general’s office is cut any further, the Department of Public Expenditure has been told.

As part of the Government’s recent review of State expenditure, a senior official in the attorney’s office said further savings would be difficult to achieve as “all reasonable measures” had already been taken.

“It is my opinion, supported by several secretaries general, that any diminution of our services will force our clients to utilise private sector options at much greater cost than any savings this office would achieve,” wrote the office’s director general, Liam O’Daly. “We have reached a point where further cuts will impact on our ability to provide core legal services.”

In the expenditure review, Government departments were asked to set out options for living within set spending ceilings and to say how they would operate with a further 5 per cent budget cut. For the attorney’s office, a 5 per cent cut would equate to €758,550, a reduction Mr O’Daly said was “just not achievable”.

On the Law Reform Commission, funded by the office, Mr O'Daly said its budget had been reduced by almost 50 per cent since 2008 and argued that further savings would "severely undermine" the commission's ability to fulfil its role.

He warned that closing the commission would require the repeal of the Law Reform Commission Act 1975. He wrote that the commission did “very valuable work”.

In its analysis of the office’s submission, however, the Department of Public Expenditure said the possibility of abolishing the commission should be investigated.

In a separate submission, the Director of Public Prosecutions pitched for an increase in funding. The director's office said this was needed due to the establishment of the Court of Appeal, which would create more work as judges worked through the backlog of cases and a number of banking trials scheduled for the next two years.

The office pointed to this year’s Anglo trial, which ran for 11 weeks and cost the DPP about €600,000.

“It is anticipated that a number of such long trials will run in each of the next few years,” the submission stated.

Barristers’ fees represent 33 per cent of the DPP’s annual expenditure, but the office said fees had been cut three times since 2009 and could not be further reduced. It said its rates had always been “very significantly lower” than fees paid in the open market.

“This office considers that any further reduction in the rate of fees it pays barristers would run a substantial risk of it not being able to retain top quality barristers for prosecution work,” it warned.