Shatter’s legal firm receives second-highest fees from CFA

The legal firm established by former justice minister Alan Shatter has received more than €660,000 in fees from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency (CFA), to date this year.

According to data released by Tusla in response to a Freedom of Information request, the amount paid out to Dublin firm Gallagher Shatter Solicitors in the year to the end of December 17 totalled €669,423, including Vat.

The firm — which claims to be the first in the country to establish a separate family law unit — received the second-highest amount in legal fees this year from the CFA towards representing guardians ad litem in the family law proceedings.

Mr Shatter joined the firm in 1976 and is widely regarded as one of the authorities on family law in Ireland, having written extensively on the subject.

Earlier this year, the HSE confirmed that Gallagher Shatter Solicitors received €392,646 in fees for acting for guardians ad litem in 2013.

The highest amount paid out this year by Tusla to solicitors representing guardians ad litem was to Pol O’Murchu & Co Solicitors, which received €1.14m in fees.

The figures show that the total spend on solicitors representing guardians ad litem — who provide an independent voice for children in family law proceedings — totals €5.5m in 2014 to date.

This compares to a spend of €4.85m for 2013 to solicitors representing guardians ad litem — a jump of 13.5% in one year.

Other solicitors in receipt of payments from the CFA representing guardians ad litem to feature in the top 10 recipients are: Gerard O’Brien, €587,628; Rosemary Gantly, €525,425; Caldwell & Robinson Solicitors, €502,542; Gary Irwin, €315,421; Augustus Cullen, Law €300,281; Noonan Linehan Carroll Coffey Solicitors, €214,548; McCarthy & Associates, €166,788; and St John’s Solicitors, €152,484.

In briefing documents prepared for the then children’s minister, Charlie Flanagan, in May, the secretary general of the department noted that legal costs at Tusla were “amongst the issues giving rise to expenditure problems” for the agency and referred to the “inadequacy of the budget” transferred from the HSE for this purpose.

The agency has stated that although future legal costs would be reduced, “this will not be evidenced in 2014 as a consequence of the level of inherited commitments”.

The current children’s minister, James Reilly, has stated that “Tusla is engaged in a comprehensive and ongoing process of reform of its interactions with the courts system, with the aim of reducing the considerable legal costs the agency faces”.