Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 28 February 2019
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of An Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 4 - Central Statistics Office (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Revised)
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source
I thank the Deputy for her questions. The first one relates to tribunals. I imagine she is including commissions of investigation in that because the Moriarty tribunal is the only tribunal extant under my Department. It is never possible to know what the final cost will be because it will depend on third-party legal fees and many other things. When it ends will depend on how long it takes for it to do its work. To give some approximate figures, the spend to date on the Moriarty tribunal has been €65 million. Our best estimate - it is only an estimate - is that it will top out at approximately €75 million, depending on further legal cost awards.
The spend to date on the Cregan commission, which is the Siteserv-IBRC commission, has been €7 million. However, we anticipate that the final cost could be as much as €30 million and it is difficult to say when the commission will end. I sought an interim report but have not received it as yet.
The spend to date on the Cooke commission, which is investigating NAMA and the allegations about Project Eagle, is €2 million and it is estimated that it will top out at approximately €10 million. Again these are just estimates.
On the 20 politically appointed staff, I know we have discussed this previously-----
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