Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1990 > Committee of Public Accounts > Final Report - Appropriation Accounts 1988

APPENDIX 35

31 July, 1990.

Mr. Eoin Faherty,

P/P Clerk,

Public Accounts Committee.

In the course of the Committee’s examination of the Office of the Attorney General, the Chairman requested a note regarding the possibility of savings on Counsels’ fees if more Solicitors were recruited.

Owing to a shortage of Solicitors in the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, that Office had been obliged to engage barristers to conduct prosecutions in the District Court and on appeal therefrom (i.e. on cases which would normally be prosecuted by a civil service Solicitor without Counsel). In late 1989 the Chief State Solicitor, in consultation with this Department, estimated that if 10 Solicitors and 4 support staff could be recruited (at a cost of approximately £200,000 per annum including overheads) a saving in Counsels’ fees of over £400,000 per annum could be achieved. The necessary sanction was secured but the Office has encountered difficulty in recruiting ten suitable Solicitors. Efforts to secure these are continuing, and a further competition is scheduled this Autumn.

It might be noted that the savings on fees would accrue to the DPP’s Vote since fees for prosecutions are paid from that Vote rather than the Attorney General.

J. O’FARRELL,

Department of Finance.