Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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656. To ask the Minister for Finance if his Department has conducted any audits or reviews in the past five years on legal fee spend; if so, to publish the findings or summaries of those reviews; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41557/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Most of our legal services are obtained without fees from the Office of the Attorney General and the Chief State Solicitor’s Office. Where barristers are engaged those offices have processes in place to ensure that the fees charged by counsel are fair and reasonable before they meet them. I understand that the Office of the Attorney General operates a number of panels of barristers to provide assistance in various areas.

In cases where specialist legal advice is required from private sector law firms my Department has established a panel of legal firms on foot of a public procurement process to provide those services, and the fees charged by those firms are governed by the framework established pursuant to that tender process. All fees charged on foot of that procurement are reviewed by internal lawyers to ensure that they are fair and reasonable before they are discharged. Those routine reviews of legal fee spend do not produce findings or reports which could be provided, the fees are paid where they are deemed fair and reasonable or would be discussed with the providers in the event there were queries arising in respect of them.