A reformed legal system would be more equitable

REPORTS of the impertinent and outrageous claims for a severance payment of up to €30,000 by each of the barristers’ appointed to the Moriarty Tribunal legal team come after this legal team had already been paid almost €33 million for input to the Tribunal, two of whom were each paid over €9.2m.

The legal team was identified, recruited and appointed by the sole member of the Tribunal. There was no competitive tendering process, formal procurement procedures or input by the civil service departments who paid the selected barrister, but were advised the custom and practices of the legal professions were followed.

The Moriarty Tribunal sat for an average of 20 days between 2008 and 2010. But each of the three senior counsels was paid €2,500 per day, for 304 days, in 2008. Additional payments estimated at €1m were paid to senior counsel when a proposed reduction in 2002 of their per diem rate was not implemented and the original higher rate was sanctioned on a personal basis.

The scale of these costs and the absurdity of these claims aptly demonstrate the urgent and compelling need for the radical reform of the legal professions and promptly ending the combined role of the Bar Council and the Law Society regulating and representing the professions.

This buccaneering, self-serving culture impedes economic recovery and investment and is inimical to the public interest. The state, as the biggest buyer of legal services, needs to deal aggressively and effectively with the underlying issues that facilitate outrageous costs and claims by what are essentially a cosseted elite.

Reformed legal professions’ will mean fewer unemployed and underemployed barristers and solicitors, and a legal system that becomes a more dependable purveyor of justice and equity.

Myles Duffy

Bellevue Avenue

Glenageary

Co Dublin