Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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124. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the oversights in place in terms of the expenditure of publicly funded bodies on legal defence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26272/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Chief State Solicitor’s Office (CSSO) acts on behalf of central Government in the conduct of the defence of litigation, excluding the defence of those claims handled by the State Claims Agency (CSA). The CSSO is a constituent part of the Office of the Attorney General and comes under the remit of the Department of the Taoiseach. The CSSO has its own Vote and is subject to the oversight of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) in relation to its expenditure. Disbursements arising as a result of a court award or settlement of proceedings (e.g. damages, costs) are funded by the relevant Department or Office of State and accounted for in its Appropriation Account.   

The Chief State Solicitor is the Accounting Officer and, pursuant to section 3(5) of the Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Compellability, Privileges and Immunities of Witnesses) Act 1997, may be called to give evidence before the Public Accounts Committee in relation to the general administration of the office.

The main legal expenditure within the Office is in regard to fees paid to Counsel and the Office has a rigorous process in place to ensure value for money.

Oversight on legal spend by Central Government is a matter for the Comptroller and Auditor General. The CSSO has no visibility of defence litigation expenditure where it is not the solicitor on record and the CSSO has no oversight role in this regard.

The State Claims Agency provides legal defence in respect of personal injury matters for 145 public bodies. It is mandated to contain the cost of claims to the lowest achievable level and, in relation to legal defence costs. The SCA does this in a number of ways, including through procurement of legal services on a competitive tendering basis via the Government’s eTender website, extensive use of its own in-house solicitors for much of the litigation arising on its General Indemnity and Clinical Indemnity Schemes, and the establishment of a Legal Costs Unit in 2012 which is primarily involved in the negotiation of third party legal costs but also provides guidance and assistance to the SCA’s claims’ teams in relation to defence legal costs. Furthermore, all aspects of the Agency's work is the subject of both internal and external audit, including by the C&AG and the NTMA’s internal audit function.

In addition, the Office of Government Procurement, which commenced operations in 2014, has taken responsibility for the procurement of Professional Services and has developed a sourcing strategy for legal services and more particularly those services which public bodies procure from solicitors. Given the range of legal requirements that exist across all sectors within the public service, the OGP has already implemented six key Framework Agreements/contracting arrangements for Legal Services and is currently examining a further two.