Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 November 2015

Public Accounts Committee

2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 3: Office of the Attorney General
Vote 5: Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
Vote 6: Office of the Chief State Solicitor

10:00 am

Photo of John McGuinnessJohn McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On that last question, there are three different agencies or arms of legal services to the State. We can generally take the different figures and quantify how much the legal costs are in layman's terms to the State. Did the Attorney General's office ever look at the costs incurred by all of the Government agencies and Departments or even just the Departments with a view to streamlining the service and determining just how much the State is paying generally for legal services? It seems that it is an astronomical amount of money when it is all gathered together. One wonders if having, perhaps not a one-size-fits-all, but certainly a general approach drawing in the Department spend also would give us a greater idea of just how much the State is spending. It might also suggest how better that amount of money could be spent if resources were pooled. While this might be a policy matter, someone has to ask. Is it not something the Office of the Attorney General would consider in the interests of the taxpayer if there were savings to be made?

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