State pays top legal firm €1.5m for bill

A LEADING solicitors’ firm was paid €1.5 million for consultancy work on major Government legislation last year.

The country’s second-largest solicitors, Dublin-based A&L Goodbody, was involved in preparing a preliminary draft of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Bill 2003, for which it was paid fees amounting to a little over €1.5m.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte brought up the payment when questioning Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the Dáil yesterday about the “contracting out” of legislation by the Attorney-General’s office.

Mr Ahern said it was the practice of the Attorney General to draft primary legislation within the office and of 226 bills that have been enacted since 2000, only two have been drafted outside the office.

He said in both cases they had been prepared by a parliamentary draughtsman, who was a former member of the AG’s office.

He said in other cases, including the Central Bank Bill, outside legal experts had been contracted to help prepare complex legislation.

However, while the legal firm had prepared sample drafts of the legislation, the final bill had been drafted by the AG’s office.

Mr Ahern accepted that regulations and statutory instruments were sometimes drafted by lawyers not employed by the State but said that he agreed with the AG, who was not in favour of primary legislation’s view that primary legislation be prepared by his office. He justified the fees charged by A&L Goodbody on the Central Bank Bill on the grounds it was a complex piece of legislation.

Mr Rabbitte replied that €1.5m was a “huge amount of money for a single bill no matter how large or no matter how complex”.

Green Party leader Trevor Sargent and Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins said the large backlog of legislation pointed to a shortage of parliamentary drafting staff within the AG’s office.