David Drumm prosecution team paid €1.1m

Team of four barristers shared daily payment of €10,000 by DPP on top of brief fee

Jailed former Anglo chief executive David Drumm: brief fees in his trial were the highest paid by the DPP for any trial in 2018. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
Jailed former Anglo chief executive David Drumm: brief fees in his trial were the highest paid by the DPP for any trial in 2018. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

The legal team that made the case that led to the jailing of former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm was paid a total of €1.123 million.

The four prosecution barristers in the trial at Dublin Circuit Court shared daily pay of €10,000, according to new figures released by the Freedom of Information Unit at the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The prosecution team was made up of Paul O'Higgins SC, Mary Rose Gearty SC, Sinead McGrath and Diana Stuart.

Drumm was jailed for six years in June after being convicted for his role in a €7.2 billion fraud perpetrated at the peak of the banking crisis in 2008.

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The figures reveal that Mr O'Higgins and Ms Gearty were each paid a €40,000 brief fee to take on the case while Ms McGrath and Ms Stuart each received a brief fee of €26,667.

Record fees

The brief fees paid in the trial were the highest paid by the DPP for any trial in 2018 due to the complexity of the case.

In addition, Mr O’Higgins and Ms Gearty each received a daily refresher fee of €3,000 while their colleagues, Ms McGrath and Ms Stuart, each received a daily refresher €2,000.

The legal team received an aggregate total of €10,000 for attending court for each day of the 16-week long trial. All the fees are exclusive of VAT.

The bill to the taxpayer for the trial contributed to the spend by the DPP on barristers for the first half of this year increasing by 12 per cent on the same period last year, from €8.73 million to €9.77 million.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times