Ms Eileen Creedon:

We cover a range of legal work. My office handled a number of referendum petitions. Procurement is a new area of work for us and we dealt with a significant amount of High Court litigation in this regard when we would have dealt with none previously. We also dealt with a significant amount of commercial litigation which goes through the Commercial Court. This process is tightly managed and accelerates litigation.

Not all the cases I pay for in any given year are referrable to that particular year. I might open a file in 2012 or 2013 but I will not be able to estimate when the case will come to a conclusion and fall for payment in respect of counsels' fees. For example, it may be on a court list or settle. This year, I had a larger number of cases where a high range of fee was paid than was the case in the past two years. That is just when they fell due for payment having come to a conclusion in the courts.

It is unpredictable and, as Mr. O'Daly said earlier, we are demand-led. We do not know what work is going to arrive on our desks and we cannot refuse any work. We cannot accurately predict when a file will fall due for payment as it depends on when it runs, what time it concludes and whether it settles.