Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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950. To ask the Minister for Defence if he has sought and received legal advice outside of the Office of the Attorney General; the number of times advice was sought per year from 2011, 2012 and to date in 2013; the costs of outside legal advice per year from 2011, 2012 and to date in 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34979/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Chief State Solicitors Office, Attorney General’s Office and the State Claims Agency deal with all legal matters on behalf of the Department. As such it would seldom arise that the Department procures the services of external solicitors and barristers directly. The following table only includes costs incurred by the Department in obtaining legal advices directly and does not include legal costs in relation to litigation cases which are mainly managed by the State Claims Agency and the Chief State Solicitors Office.

While it possibly falls outside the terms of the question, for completeness, I would like to advise the Deputy that the independent selection committee for the Military Judge appointment sought legal advice arising from the 2010 Competition for the Military Judge. While the Committee is completely independent in its functions, the payment to senior counsel in respect of that advice in the amount of €9,075 including VAT was paid in 2011 out of my Department’s Vote.