Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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162. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to the judgment in the Supreme Court case between the National Asset Management Agency and the Office of the Commissioner for Environment Information, the total legal fees incurred to date in the case by that office; and the estimate of all legal costs incurred by that office. [27379/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The total of legal fees incurred by the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information (OCEI) to date in the case of NAMA v Commissioner for Environmental Information is €97,000.  It is expected that additional fees will be incurred in the coming weeks. The total of all legal fees incurred by the OCEI since its inception to date, including those for the NAMA case, is €266,000. The background to the NAMA Supreme Court appeal is as follows: A request was made to NAMA for access to certain information under the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007.  NAMA refused the request on the ground that it did not consider itself to be a "public authority" within the meaning of the Regulations.  The applicant appealed NAMA's decision to the OCEI.  The Commissioner found that NAMA was a public authority for the purposes of the Regulations.  NAMA appealed the Commissioner's decision to the High Court.  The High Court dismissed NAMA's appeal.  NAMA subsequently appealed that judgment to the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court delivered its judgment on 23 June 2015, dismissing the appeal.