Taxpayers’ bill for Mahon tribunal at €57m ... so far

Almost 20 years after it was established and eight years after it last held a public hearing, the bill to the taxpayer for the Mahon tribunal keeps on mounting.

Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Simon Coveney has confirmed that the bill to date this year has topped €3.27m.

The total bill for the 11 years now stands at €57.25m. However, that figure does not include the costs from the establishment of the tribunal in 1997 to 2005.

The tribunal itself has estimated that its final bill will be around €159m.

According to Mr Coveney, the tribunal’s €3.27m bill for 2016 is made up of €2.87m being paid out in legal costs for those third parties who appeared before the tribunal.

He stated that an additional €394,081 was spent on internal tribunal costs to November 28 of this year.

The spend on the tribunal this year is down sharply on the €4.47m spent in 2015.

In the breakdown provided for the costs over the 11 years from 2006 to 2016, €24.9m has been spent on internal tribunal costs including €16.9m spent between 2006 and 2008.

The largest proportion of costs has gone on third-party legal costs over the period totalling €26.7m, while an additional €5.6m was spent on court costs.

The tribunal mostly investigated planning permissions and land rezonings issues in the 1990s in the Dublin City Council area.

The tribunal also investigated the finances of former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. He was forced to resign as Taoiseach in April 2008.

Mr Ahern also quit Fianna Fáil in 2012 following the publication of the Mahon Tribunal Report.