Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to present the requirement for Further Revised Estimates 2025 for the Department of the Taoiseach and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, following on from the Taoiseach attending the Joint and Select Committees on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach on the 2025 Revised Estimates for the Vote group on 9 July this year.

The key function of the Department of the Taoiseach is to support the Taoiseach and the Government, including in implementing the programme for Government, through principled leadership and joined-up governance by: providing impartial high-quality policy advice in the national interest; co-ordinating Government activity to ensure effective, inclusive and timely decision-making; upholding democratic integrity, Civil Service values and public trust at the centre of government; and promoting a strategic and sustainable long-term perspective that safeguards Ireland’s future prosperity, cohesion and resilience.

The 2025 gross Revised Estimate for the Department of the Taoiseach is €38.2 million. A total of 67%, or €25.42 million, of the allocation relates to salaries, wages and allowances.

Administration costs for the Department account for 16%. The remaining 17% provides non-pay funding for the National Economic and Social Development Office, the Covid-19 evaluation, citizens' assemblies and independent tribunals of inquiry and commissions of investigation.

A Supplementary Estimate of €3.389 million is requested for Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach. The need for the Supplementary Estimate relates to reimbursement to the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, in respect of third-party costs relating to the Moriarty tribunal of inquiry and the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, commission of investigation. Funding provision for tribunals of inquiry and commissions of investigation was discussed with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation as part of the 2025 Estimates process. Given that substantial allocations that had been made under these subheads in previous years went unspent, the 2025 allocation for tribunals of inquiry and commissions of investigation was agreed on the basis that any additional third-party costs falling due would be funded by way of a Supplementary Estimate.

The resolution to establish the Moriarty tribunal of inquiry was passed by the Oireachtas on 26 September 1997. The tribunal cost falls within the remit of Department of the Taoiseach. However, the tribunal is fully independent of the Department. The Department has no control over the amount or timing of third-party costs. Following completion and publication of the Moriarty tribunal’s final report in 2011, a number of significant legal challenges resulted in considerable delays to the completion of the process regarding applications for third-party costs. The legal costs unit of the State Claims Agency has delegated sanction under the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2000 to assess bills of costs when received. Settlements are processed and paid by the legal costs unit and reimbursement is then sought by the NTMA from the Department of the Taoiseach. A total Revised Estimate of €3.31 million was provided for tribunals of inquiry in 2025.

It is estimated that reimbursement to the NTMA in respect of third-party costs relating to the Moriarty tribunal of inquiry will amount to approximately €6.785 million in 2025, resulting in a funding requirement of €3.475 million.

The NAMA commission of investigation was established in June 2017, following extensive consultation with Oireachtas Members, to investigate the sale by NAMA of its Northern Ireland portfolio, known as Project Eagle. The Taoiseach was the specified Minister under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004. The commission submitted its final report in April 2025, which dealt with the legal costs payable to the witnesses who appeared before it.

All commissions of investigation over the years covered by this subhead were independent and the Department of the Taoiseach had no control over their investigations or the third-party costs the commission would direct the Taoiseach to pay. The 2025 Revised Estimate allocation under subhead A5, commissions of investigation, is €2 million. It is estimated that reimbursements to the NTMA in respect of third-party costs related to the NAMA commission will amount to €2.764 million in 2025, giving rise to a Supplementary Estimate requirement of €764,000 in subhead A5.

The total additional funding requirement in respect of third-party costs related to the Moriarty tribunal and the NAMA commission of investigation is €4.239 million. However, the Department has identified savings of €850,000 to offset this additional funding requirement. Therefore, a Supplementary Estimate of €3.389 million is required for Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach. This will bring the 2025 gross Further Revised Estimate for the Department of the Taoiseach for the full year to €41.569 million.

I will turn now to the request for a technical Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, CSSO. While the Taoiseach and other officeholders in the Department of the Taoiseach have certain responsibilities to the Oireachtas for administrative matters in the CSSO, the office operates independently of the Department of the Taoiseach. The CSSO is seeking to reallocate funding so that savings on budget lines can be used to offset increased expenditure under a number of subheads. The CSSO is a constituent part of the Attorney General's office and acts as solicitor to Ireland, the Attorney General and Departments and offices. The CSSO's mission is to provide the highest standard of professional legal services to the Government, Departments and offices as economically and efficiently as possible and to support adherence to the rule of law.

The overall level of counsel fees is entirely demand-led and they are only paid following a robust, multilayered process which assesses each fee note individually to ascertain the correct fee payable for the work involved. The overall level of case fee notes is entirely demand-led and depends not only on the number of cases but also on the complexity of such cases in a given year. The technical Supplementary Estimate is requested to allocate funding of €1.264 million to cover additional expenditure under four subheads in the CSSO Vote: subhead A2, administration non-pay; subhead A3, external legal services; subhead A4, fees to counsel; and subhead A5, general law expenses.

Subhead A2, administration non-pay, was allocated a provision of €4.464 million in the 2025 Revised Estimates. An additional €232,000 is sought under this subhead. Inflationary increases, combined with delayed receipt of certain invoices at the end of 2024 now falling due in 2025, gave rise to the increased expenditure under this subhead.

An additional allocation of €62,000 is required to cover projected total spend of €312,000 on external legal services in 2025. This subhead provides for costs associated with engaging local State solicitors to act on behalf of the CSSO in the Circuit Courts and occasionally in the District Courts outside of Dublin. This increased expenditure arose due to an increase in the level of case activity in the work handled by local State solicitors, which varies from time to time.

An allocation of €17 million was made under subhead A4 in respect of fees for counsel in 2025. However, the current position shows that after the fees requested by counsel undergo a value-for-money assessment, it is estimated total fees to counsel in 2025 will be €17.801 million, leaving a shortfall of €801,000 in this subhead. These are primarily fees payable to external counsel following the delivery of the relevant legal service, where they represent Departments and offices in litigation before the Irish courts, other tribunals and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The overall level of these fees is, to a large extent, demand-led and dependent on the level of activity in the courts at any time and on the complexity of the given cases. It is therefore difficult to forecast the level of fees each year.

A provision of €630,000 was made in the 2025 CSSO Revised Estimates for general law expenses, which are demand-led and depend on the types of cases being taken by and against the State. It is estimated that expenditure on general law expenses will be approximately €800,000 in 2025, which gives rise to a requirement for an additional allocation of €170,000 under this subhead.

The CSSO has identified savings under subhead A1, administration pay and excess appropriations-in-aid, which will offset the total estimated €1.264 million expenditure shortfall in Vote 6. To allow the Oireachtas to vote on the technical Supplementary Estimate, an additional €1,000 must be requested on the CSSO's 2025 Revised Estimate, bringing the 2025 gross Further Revised Estimate for the CSSO to €54.55 million. I commend the motion to the House.

See this speech in context