Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 157: To ask the Taoiseach in each of the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 the arrangements entered into by his Department for the obtaining of advice from a firm of solicitors and or from senior or junior counsel; in each case the subject matter in respect of which advices were sought, the name of the solicitors firm and or barristers concerned and the fees paid; the nature of the work concerned, that is, whether it involved the drafting of legislation or the obtaining of legal advices; whether in each case the matter concerned was advertised for tender and where not, why not. [1627/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 159: To ask the Taoiseach with regard to legal services used by his Department, any Body under the aegis of his Department and any State agency for which he is responsible; if he will give details of the legal services of which there has been competitive tendering in each of the years 2008, 2009 and 2010; the legal firm in each case that furnished advice with regard to any such tendering and assisted in the preparation of tender documents and in each case to detail the solicitors firm who succeeded in each tendering process, the nature of the work for which each firm successfully tendered and the fees paid for any such advice or assistance to each firm for work for which it tendered. [1657/11]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 157 and 159 together.

My Department did not obtain legal advice from a firm of solicitors or from Senior or Junior Counsel, other than through the Office of the Attorney General, during the period in question.

In 2006, the National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO), which is the only agency under the aegis of my Department, conducted a competitive tendering process for the provision of legal advice and the contract was awarded to Mason Hayes Curran. Expenditure on legal services by NESDO in 2008 amounted to €18,001.29. The details are set out in the table beneath:

There was no expenditure on legal services by NESDO in 2009 or 2010.