Contact information
- telephone
- 01 662 4070
- fax
- 01 611 4650
- address
- 2 Holles Street
Dublin
- 2 Holles Street
Run for and by people who have experienced sexual abuse.
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The top 10 earning barristers working on the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse have shared over €1.7m in State fees in the past two years.
The overall State legal bill for work on institutional child abuse has topped €3m since January 2003. Annual payments to the 'Top 10' barristers representing the State on commission work ranged from €221,563 to €33,134.
The Department of Education and Science paid a total of €990,0139 to the Top 10 in 2003, while payments to date for 2004 amount to €756,516, Education Minister Mary Hanafin said.
The department also pays the costs of solicitors acting on behalf of parties to the indemnity agreement, protecting religious orders from claims for compensation arising from abuse which occurred in residential institutions.
In 2003, €475,281 was paid to firms of solicitors for this work, while so far in 2004, €936,195 has been paid under this heading.
The minister has provided Fine Gael Justice spokesperson Jim O'Keeffe with payments for work for the commission and names of recipients, but has not matched payments to individual barristers.
A spokesperson said this was "third party information". It was a matter of policy within the department not to release it publicly.
Individual payments in 2003, in descending order, were: €221,563, €216,173, €154,520, €138,193, €53,760, €46,447, €46,171, €42,009, €38,164 and €33,134. The recipients (in alphabetical order) were Douglas Clarke BL, Wesley Farrell BL, Kim Fitzgerald BL, Doirbhile Flanagan SC, Barry Halton BL, Margaret Levey BL, John MacMenamin SC, Philip O'Brien BL, Ann Power BL and Jim Sharkey BL.
Individual payments in 2004, in descending order, were: €165,059, €117,067, €111,727, €81,437, €65,414, €56,654, €52,068, €37,928, €34,673, €34,485. Recipients (in alphabetical order) were Elizabeth Cogan BL, Doirbhile Flanagan SC, Mervyn T Hickey BL, Nicholas Hosey BL, Matthias Kelly QC, John MacMenamin SC, Ann Power BL, Sean Ryan SC, Jim Sharkey BL and Jason Stewart BL.
Legal fees for work relating to the commission have exceeded €8.2m. Its overall cost was €17.3m to the end of August.
Katherine Donnelly
