Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

On 15 December 2006, the chairman of the planning tribunal on his own initiative wrote to me to advise that the tribunal's public hearings would not be completed by 31 March 2007, the target date for the termination of the tribunal's work identified in 2004. The chairman stated that he anticipated that the tribunal would be involved in public hearings until the end of 2007 and possibly into the early months of 2008. Since this communication I have been in correspondence with the chairman regarding the duration and cost of the tribunal's work and have accepted an invitation to meet him to discuss these issues. I do not consider it appropriate at this time to publish this ongoing correspondence.

I am advised by the tribunal that it is engaged in five modules of investigation. The cost of the planning tribunal amounted to more than €62 million to the end of 2006. Expenditure in 2006 was nearly €16.2 million, of which €6.62 million related to the legal costs of third parties represented before the tribunal in the period 1997-2002. It is estimated that outstanding third party bills relating to this period might amount to some €5 million. The operational cost of the tribunal is approximately €10 million annually.

My Department does not have access to the detailed records of the tribunal which would be a necessary starting point for any accurate estimation of the overall cost of the tribunal. On the matter of costs it is interesting to note the contribution of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the Committee of Public Accounts last week where he spoke of the difficulties in estimating accurately the contingent liabilities of commissions and tribunals, commenting that he "may decide that it is not possible to do this".

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