Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide an itemised list of payments made to external solicitors and to external barristers whose services were procured directly by the Department and by each agency and body under its aegis in the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010; the reason for each such procurement; and if such services were procured through competitive tendering processes in every instance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40941/10]

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. However it 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 their respective Votes. The following tables set out the detail sought by the Deputy in relation to the legal fees paid by my Department and by the Offices under the aegis of my Department for the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and to date in 2010.

The Office of Public Works was unable to provide the information requested by the Deputy in the time available, however, this information is being collated and will be issued directly to the Deputy.

*Normal procurement procedures were not followed because of the urgency of the issue.

*Normal procurement procedures were not followed because of the urgency of the issue.

**The Chief State Solicitors Office engaged the services of the solicitors involved on behalf of the State Laboratory.

A payment of €1,000 in 2010 was made to the State Claims Agency for legal opinion they received in a case involving the issuing of incorrect results by the State Laboratory. Both the Valuation Office and the Office of the Appeals Commissioners incurred no legal fees in the period in question.

Revenue

The Revenue Solicitor provides legal services for Revenue and in that capacity engages external barristers in circumstances that require specific legal advices and legal opinions on issues in Tax, Customs and general litigation, for advising proofs for Court and Administrative Tribunal cases and for providing full advocacy services in the conduct on Tax, Customs and general litigation (both civil and criminal) before the District, Circuit, High and Supreme Courts, Appeal Commissioners and other administrative tribunals. The use of a competitive tendering process for these services is not feasible.

Details of the amounts paid to various external barristers in the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and to end October 2010 are given in the following table as Counsel Fees. Revenue also engages external solicitors for various services of a legal nature. The majority of these services relate to the collection/recovery of debt due to Revenue/Exchequer. For the years in question Revenue's Office of the Collector General engaged firms of solicitors following tendering processes in line with public procurement guidelines. Details of payments made to each of these firms of solicitors are given in the following table.