Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 164: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount spent by his Department on legal fees directly to lawyers or through the State solicitor's office for each of the years 2006, 2007 and 2008; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28468/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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In general, my department uses the services of the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, and seeks outside legal advisors in circumstances requiring legal services of a specific nature. The costs associated with the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor are borne by the respective Votes and are not charged back to my Department.

The following table sets out expenditure in the years 2006 to 2008 on contracts for legal services by my department and the related offices.

In addition the Office of the Revenue Commissioners incurred expenditure in respect of cases where they petition the courts for the liquidation of a company. These payments mainly comprise professional fees for Liquidators and their legal teams and totalled €1.7M in 2006, €2.5M in 2007. A breakdown isolating legal fees from within this total spend is not readily available for 2006 or 2007. The legal fees element for 2008 is included in the figures quoted above.