Dublin City Council spent €1.6m on barristers' fees last year

Dublin City Council has spent more than €2m on barristers' fees in the past 17 months.

Almost €1.6m was spent last year alone.

Details released under the Freedom of Information Act show Dublin City Council spent nearly €2.2m on paying barristers between January 2018 and last month.

Nearly €1.6m was paid last year and more than 600,000 in the first five months of 2019.

According to the local authority's figures, the highest paid barrister over the 17-month period was junior counsel John Doherty - he got just over €500,000.

Senior counsel Conleth Bradley was the next biggest earner, with nearly 209,000, while the third highest was junior counsel Grainne Larkin, with €196,000.