Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The tribunal has cost €31 million to date and is staffed by an extensive legal team and a 48 strong administrative staff. This report shows that the tribunal is more than capable of doing an effective job of uncovering acts of corruption. To date, the legal fees of the legal team amount to €17.5 million. Other legal fees to non-tribunal counsel amount to just over €1 million and administrative costs amount to just under €12 million. The Government has made all resources available to the tribunal.

I wish to comment on some unfair points made by some Members. Deputy Allen spoke about the leaking of information on the next phase of the tribunal and I agree that such action is scandalous. It is wrong to leak that information and obviously somebody is doing it to get his or her own spin out first.

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