Legal fees for barristers working for the two longest-running tribunals - the Mahon and Moriarty inquiries - will not be cut for up to two years, despite the Government's move yesterday to impose reduced rates immediately for all new tribunals and phase them in for existing inquiries.
Despite wanting to cut tribunal costs, the Government has been forced to delay reducing fees for barristers employed by tribunals because of fears that immediate cuts would have led top staff to quit, bringing the investigations to a halt.
The fees, which exceed €2,500-a-day for senior counsel, will be cut to €900 under the plan, which was first put forward by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, in early July.
Though the new fees will apply to all new tribunals, Ministers accepted their delayed introduction into existing tribunals on foot of advice from the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady, following talks with the heads of all of the inquiries.
The new rates will apply to the Morris tribunal, which is investigating allegations of Donegal Garda corruption and the conduct of the inquiry into the death of Mr Richie Barron, from January 11th, 2006.
However, they will not come into effect on the Moriarty tribunal, investigating payments to former taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, and former Fine Gael minister, Mr Michael Lowry, until September 2006.
They will be introduced for the Murphy inquiry into child sexual abuse in Ferns from next December, and from March 31st next for the Clarke inquiry into events at Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
The new rates will not come into force for the Barr tribunal, which is investigating the shooting dead of Mr John Carty at Abbeylara, Co Longford, until June 2005.
However, the longest-running and most expensive tribunal, now headed by Mr Justice Alan Mahon, has so far not agreed a table of fees, despite discussions with the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady.
In a statement yesterday, the Government said it had decided to set different dates "having regard to the individual circumstances of each tribunal or inquiry and after communication with each of their chairpersons. The Government determined not to set dates which were unrealistically early, as to do so might have involved extensive disruption of the tribunals and inquiries by reason of changes in legal personnel involved.
"The delays and costs which such changes would have entailed would have added to, rather than reduced, the costs of the tribunals and inquiries," the statement continued. "The effect of the new schedule of legal fees will be to greatly reduce the cost of tribunals and inquiries should they continue their work beyond the set dates."
In a bid to accelerate its work, the Mahon tribunal, in its fourth interim report, sought freedom to restrict its investigations, though talks on this point will continue for weeks with the Department of the Environment. Warning that the tribunal could run for a decade, Mr Justice Mahon said the tribunal's legal team is "stretched to its limits, if not beyond" by its workload.
Welcoming the move, the chairman of the Bar Council, Mr Hugh Mohan SC, said all of the legal profession had received poor publicity over tribunal fees, even though only 60 or so barristers ever worked on tribunals. Barristers would welcome "any agreed arrangement" that would bring the tribunals to a successful and "speedy" conclusion, though he pointed out that the rates were agreed by the Government from the beginning.
Insisting that "the legal gold rush" would continue, Fine Gael TD, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, said tribunals would not get cheaper despite "the much trumpeted" announcement that fees would be cut.
"Existing tribunal fees will continue into the foreseeable future. Any changes, if they ever come into force, will be at some future date. In some cases this date may be as far away as the second half of 2006. Despite all the hand wringing and the public claims that it wanted to do something to reduce the expensive legal costs associated with tribunals, all the Government has managed to do is put off any changes until some future date," he said.