Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will turn to governance and finances. In 2018, the legal fees were €1.2 million. In 2021, they are €8.4 million. That is exceptional. Much of that relates to the strategic housing developments, which are now history and which, I believe, were an awful imposition altogether and were put together on a false basis that somehow the planning process could not be speeded up at local authority level. Does the board envisage an increase in legal fees as a result of the multiplicity of examinations and investigations I mentioned and the potential outworkings of that? Does Mr. Walsh envisage an increase in legal fees over the next year or two? As Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, I am interested in this.