Flood defends inquiry’s legal fees

FORMER chairman of the planning tribunal, Justice Feargus Flood, said yesterday that the fees paid to his staff in the seven-year-long, €30 million inquiry were perfectly justified.

Revealing the tribunal was intended to last less than a year, Justice Flood defended the cost and time invested in the inquiry into corruption, now known as the Mahon Tribunal.

“One thing I am quite happy to say, and say very, very firmly, is the salaries being paid to my staff, or what were my staff, are absolutely justified.

“They were at the top of their profession. You couldn’t get a more erudite person than John Gallagher on a matter of planning. It just doesn’t exist in this country. You can talk through the remainder of the staff. They are classic cross examiners,” he said.

When he accepted the invitation from the Government to chair the tribunal in 1997, the former High Court Judge said he was told it would last less than a year, he told RTÉ Today with Pat Kenny yesterday. The hearing is now expected to last until 2010.

The former judge said the tribunal was useless unless it approaches its work in a balanced and fair manner.

“When you come down to sitting to make out your report you have got to do this balance,” he said.