Politicians’ finances inquiry cost €2 million in fees

About €2 million of taxpayers’ money has been paid in fees as part of the long-running investigation into the financial affairs of former senior politicians alleged to have had Ansbacher accounts.

The investigation is being conducted by Gerard Ryan, a civil servant in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, who was appointed as the authorised officer to examine the case in 1998.

Mr Ryan was instructed by the then minister Mary Harney to cease working on the case in 2002 but he has continued to work on it since then.

Tax evasion

He recently availed of the whistleblower legislation to send a dossier containing allegations about tax evasion by former politicians to the

Public Accounts Committee

.

Their names were read into the Dáil record during the week by Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald although no evidence has emerged in the investigation to sustain the allegations. The politicians named have denied any involvement in tax evasion.

In response to a query from The Irish Times about the cost of the investigation to date the department has disclosed that 11 investigations were initiated under section 19 of the Companies Act 1990 since 1997, the majority of which were related to the Ansbacher inquiries conducted by the authorised officer.

The department said the total cost of the investigations was in the region of €1.42 million. In addition €668,128 was paid to a British legal expert asked to review the case by Micheál Martin when he was minister at the department in 2005.

The figures show that legal fees paid to barrister John Hennessy accounted for €488,535 of the total, further legal costs came to €461,072, while other costs covering stenographers, travel, copies of transcripts and company search fees came to €469,410.

In addition costs of €668,129 were incurred to cover the professional fees, travel, accommodation and other vouched expenses in respect of the independent review conducted by Matthias Kelly QC at the request of the then minister in 2005 and in respect of legal advice provided by Mr Kelly to the then minister over the period 2005-2008.