Barristers paid €3.6m in refugee hearings

FORMER Fianna Fáil Ministers Michael O’Kennedy and David Andrews have been paid €101,000 and €74,000 respectively to decide upon asylum seekers’ appeals for refugee status.

After retiring from politics, the two senior counsel were almost immediately appointed as members of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal in June 2002. Since then the pair have taken a slice of the €3.6 million paid to barristers to pass judgment on the appeals in the last three-and-a-half years.

Mr Andrews, a former Foreign Affairs Minister, also sits on the advisory board of Ireland Aid, the wing of the Department of Foreign Affairs responsible for dispersal of the Government's Third World aid budget.