Shatter’s former firm nets HSE fees of €422k

The legal firm that Justice Minister Alan Shatter helped build got fees totalling €422,130 from the HSE last year.

The payments to Gallagher Shatter Solicitors form part of €28.7m in legal fees that the HSE paid out last year.

Mr Shatter joined the Dublin firm in 1976 and, until his appointment as justice minister in March 2011, Mr Shatter was the firm’s consultant on family law.

The HSE figures, released in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Gallagher Shatter Solicitors generated all of its HSE-related fees, which are inclusive of Vat, in the childcare area last year.

It generated €392,646 in fees through acting as guardians ad litem, who are appointed to children by the courts to speak for the child.

It was not the highest- earning firm in childcare last year — Rosemary Gantly received €808,066 in fees, with Pol O’Murchu & Co Solicitors receiving €526,035.

Arthur Cox Solicitors was the big winner last year, receiving €19.46m in relation to the contract it has with the HSE.

The firm to receive the largest amount in third-party fees in the childcare area was Frank Buttimer & Co Solicitors, with €222,927.

Last year, Mr Buttimer’s Cork practice was the highest earning criminal legal aid in the country.

The €28.7m HSE spend on legal fees last year was down from €46.7m paid out in 2012 and €35.96 spent in 2011.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said it set up an in-house Office of Legal Services in March 2010, staffed by a head of legal services and three qualified solicitors, “with a view to securing greater accountability and value for money from HSE legal advisers”.

The role of the office includes “overseeing the standard and quantum of legal services provided to the HSE and, where appropriate, querying and verifying charges for provision of these services”.

The spokeswoman said: “In addition, the HSE sought to ensure that only experienced legal practices provided legal advice at a competitive, uniform cost, and to this end devised a tender for the provision to it of legal services.

“This tender resulted in the putting in place of a panel of solicitor firms qualified and experienced in the provision of healthcare-related legal advice.

“All HSE legal advisers charge a uniform rate for provision of legal services, and submit to oversight by the in-house Office of Legal Services, thus ensuring a transparent fee structure for provision of legal services.

“In addition, the Office of Legal Services has regularised, through the introduction of a standard charge rate, the payment of fees to counsel retained by HSE.

“Although significant savings and efficiencies have been accrued to the HSE arising from all of these measures, a rigorous review of legal expenditure has commenced with an aim to achieve further significant savings and greater efficiencies in the provision of all legal services provided to the HSE.”