Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am joined by my officials. I thank the committee for making time available today to consider my request for a Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Chief State Solicitor.

As members are no doubt aware, the Office of the Chief State Solicitor is a constituent part of the Office of the Attorney General. It provides solicitor services within the Office of the Attorney General and to Departments and offices.

While the Taoiseach has certain responsibilities to the Oireachtas for administrative matters in the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, the office operates independently of the Department. The office has a wide remit, including the area of civil litigation in all courts, including attending at the Court of Justice of the European Union, ECJ, in Luxembourg, and the provision of conveyancing, property law, commercial contract and other solicitor services for the line Departments and other Civil Service clients. Many matters are high profile, sensitive, capable of attracting publicity, and sometimes involve emergency applications to court, strict time limits and complex issues of law.

A Supplementary Estimate of €3 million is sought to cover the extra expenditure of three subheads within the Vote in 2021. These subheads are: A1(i) salaries, wages and allowances; A2(v) office equipment and external IT services; and A4 - fees to counsel. While the office has managed to achieve savings of more than €500,000 elsewhere in the Vote it finds itself with a shortfall of €3 million.

I might start with the fees to counsel subhead. The management of expenditure on counsels’ fees is a key activity for the office. These are primarily fees payable to counsel representing Departments and offices in litigation before the courts and other tribunals, and the ECJ They also include fees payable for the provision by external counsel of legal advice for the State, whether sought for the Office of the Attorney General or for Departments and offices.

Expenditure on counsel fees is, to a large extent, dependent on the level of activity in the courts at any time. It is often difficult for the office to specifically forecast this. In addition, recent years have seen a marked increase in the complexity of work being handled by the office in areas such as commercial litigation and transactional work, procurement work, and advisory and litigation work that results from our membership of the EU, and the implementation of directives in areas such as environmental law, planning, employment law and social welfare law. The past two years have brought new challenges with Brexit and the emergency legislation enacted to deal with the pandemic. The office has observed that the issues raised in cases taken against the State are becoming increasingly complex, which leads to greater use of counsel.

An allocation of €15 million was made for expenditure on fees for counsel in 2021, which was the same as 2020. However, the current position shows that after the fees requested by counsel undergo a value-for-money assessment, this will leave a shortfall of €2.6 million over the allocated amount.

With regard to the office equipment and external IT services subhead, the office has incurred increased costs in the provision and support of secure remote access facilities. It has also had to upgrade video conference facilities to satisfy the requirements of the ECJ for remote hearings. The shortfall for this subhead is €213,000.

Finally, I will refer to subhead A1(i). Due to a combination of circumstances relating to the need to provide cover for staff on maternity leave, and the impact of changes to pay arrangements, the office sees a shortfall in the allocation of €772,000.

I am pleased to recommend the Supplementary Estimate to the committee and welcome the opportunity to discuss it with the Deputies.