An accountant acting for the Minister for Finance has described as "an extravagance" some of the charges which have been included in a bill of €17,168,353 presented by solicitors who acted for the Irish Haemophilia Society and individual victims at the Lindsay tribunal.
A High Court Taxing Master, Mr James Flynn, in a hearing expected to last up to two weeks, is being asked to adjudicate on the bill presented by solicitors' firm Malcomson Law for costs for solicitors and counsel and under other headings. The firm claims the bill is justified by the work involved.
Malcomson Law represented the IHS and about 200 individuals at the Lindsay tribunal, which ran for 196 days over a period of 29 months. At the conclusion of the hearing, lawyers, including Malcomson Law, were awarded their costs which, when the figures are decided, will have to be paid by the State.
The Malcomson Law bill is believed to be the largest single one from solicitors to come before a High Court Taxing Master for taxation. Some 25 to 30 other bills for costs arising from the tribunal may also come for adjudication later.
Yesterday's hearing was told by legal cost accountant Mr Declan O'Neill, for Malcomson Law, that 40.5 per cent of the €17.16 million bill, which includes VAT, is made up of solicitors' fees, while some 50 per cent arises from expenditure for counsel, experts and other charges.
Mr O'Neill said the amount of the bill would be justified during the taxation process. At his suggestion, which was agreed, the Taxing Master and the legal cost accountants went to the Malcomson Law offices yesterday to see the huge volume of documents in the case.
Various areas of work carried out on behalf of the IHS and haemophiliacs' side were outlined by Mr O'Neill, including the preparation and consideration of medical data, records and correspondence; individual patients' records; medical products used; discovery of documents; the treatment of patients from childhood to adulthood and its nature and systems put in place to facilitate evaluation. Mr O'Neill said much of the work was of the utmost sensitivity and a private room for counselling had been obtained. He said many consultations were required.
Legal cost accountant Mr Peter Fitzpatrick, for the Minister for Finance, said that fees for leading counsel for the IHS and the individual haemophiliacs at the tribunal totalled €1,618,928 while total fees for leading counsel for the State were €671,765.
He argued that the disparity between the fees for leading counsel was significant and that it was hoped to demonstrate to the Taxing Master that the difference was an extravagance and not reasonably incurred.
Mr Fitzpatrick said the total fees for counsel - for two seniors and two juniors - for the IHS and the individual haemophiliacs was
€5,482,337 while the figure for two senior counsel and two juniors for the State was €2,470,400.
Solicitors' charges for the IHS and the individual haemophiliacs were almost €7 million while there was a bill for some €538,594 for rent, rates and service charges. There was another bill for €53,304 for office expenditure. Mr Fitzpatrick said he would have thought the solicitors' bill would have included built-in elements such as office rent and expenditure.
Evidence will be given before the Taxing Master by Mr Raymond Bradley, who heads Malcomson Law, and his colleague, Mr Frank Lanigan, solicitor.