Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The point is taken. On page 69, there is mention of legal fees of more than €1 million. The cost of legal advice, including financial provision of licence activity, amounted to €561,000. Legal fees and legal proceedings amounted to €440,000. Legal fees seem to account for a big chunk of what I will call the EPA's discretionary spending when salaries, pension contributions and everything else like that are taken out. Has the EPA considered employing internal legal people? Is it all done externally? Are many of the legal issues routine that could be handled in-house if appropriate people were hired?