Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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657. To ask the Minister for Finance the internal oversight that exists within his Department to monitor the scope, duration, and cost escalation of legal services once engaged; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41575/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I can inform the deputy that most of our legal services are obtained without fees from the Office of the Attorney General and the Chief State Solicitors 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, in 2022 my Department established a panel of legal firms to provide those services on foot of an open public procurement competition run under procurement rules and published on the Official Journal of the European Union. This panel was put in place for four years.

The fees charged by those firms are governed by that tender process. During subsequent Requests for Tender (RfTs) issued to the panel, these firms may propose lower (but not higher) fee rates. The panel has been used on one occasion since 2022. The criteria for selection is based on the most economically advantageous principle and performance review, duration, scope, and fees are provided for in the contracts entered into with each successful tenderer. 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.