Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The three offices whose accounts are being reviewed by the committee today all provide legal services to or on behalf of the State. The combined net cost of these services in 2014 was around €75 million. I issued clear audit opinions in respect of all three appropriation accounts. No matters arising from the audits of these accounts were included in my report on the accounts of the public services for 2014.

The 2014 appropriation account for the Vote for the Office of the Attorney General records gross expenditure totalling €13.8 million, under a single programme dealing with the delivery of legal advice and services to the Government and to Departments and offices. Pay costs accounted for €10 million of the spend. Vote expenditure also includes provision of a recurrent grant to the Law Reform Commission, totalling approximately €1.9 million in 2014. At the end of the year, the office had underspent by €1.3 million relative to its budget and that amount was accordingly liable for surrender back to the Exchequer. Overall expenditure on Vote 3 for 2014 was down approximately 2% compared to the 2013 outturn.

The 2014 appropriation account for the Office of the Chief State Solicitor records gross expenditure totalling €27 million under a single programme dealing with the provision of legal services to central Departments and offices. The expenditure included €14 million spent on staff pay, just under €10 million spent on fees to counsel and €1 million spent on general law expenses. The balance of the expenditure was incurred in relation to administration non-pay costs. Overall expenditure on the Vote for 2014 was down approximately 9% compared to the 2013 outturn. Appropriations-in-aid of Vote 6 amounted to €1.5 million in 2014. These comprised employee pension-related deductions of €873,000 and costs and fees of €641,000 recovered by the office. Accrued income of €9.7 million is recognised on the balance sheet in respect of taxed costs due but not yet recovered. At the end of the year, the office had underspent by €840,000 relative to its budget and that amount was accordingly liable for surrender back to the Exchequer.

Vote 5 presents the expenditure in respect of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The total spend on the Vote in 2014 amounted to €37.7 million, with little change year on year. This comprised €13.4 million spent on fees paid to counsel, €12.6 million spent on staff pay, €6.4 million spent on acquiring local state solicitor services and the balance of €5.2 million spent on general law expenses and other non-pay items. Appropriations-in-aid in 2014 amounted to just under €1 million, again with little change year on year. These mainly comprise employee pension-related deductions. The surplus for surrender at end 2014 was small, at around €136,000.