EXCLUSIVE: Council legal fees exceed €1 million in last two years, according to figures

Tipperary County Council has paid over one million euro in solicitors fees in the past two years, according to a recently obtained FOI (Freedom of Information) request.

Figures obtained from Tipperary County Council, show in 2020 and 2021, an exact total of €1,068,967 was spent for various services rendered by solicitors across the county.

There was a significant increase in the expenses incurred by the council in 2021 in comparison to the previous year, with the findings highlighting an increased cost of €155,113 which raised the total last year to €612,040, while the total costs paid in 2020 stood at €456,927 at year’s end.

The largest single fees accrued by the council in the two-year period came from Binchy’s Solicitors based in Clonmel, who advised the council with regard to general local government legal advice which has totalled close to a third of the overall costs at €324,666.

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KILKENNY

Also included in the figures was the services of and payments to John G Harte Solicitors from Kilkenny as part of the council’s property and conveyancing related work around the county, which accumulated costs totalling x €358,832 over the course of 2020 and 2021.

The aforementioned firms were only two of 42 suppliers and legal firms used during the two-year period by the council, with the rest of the fees ranging anywhere between €10 to €40,000 depending on the services rendered.

Liam McCarthy, who is Tipperary County Council’s Head of Finance, highlighted that the recent revenue and spending by the council is not untypical, and the increase of cost in 2021 may be down to certain delays felt due to the pandemic.

“I haven’t looked at it in great detail, but the turnover of the council between revenue and capital in 2020 would be approaching around €300 million.

“There would have been an awful lot of conveyancing work involved in all that, and you know we have a vast array of services between housing, loans, rents, fines, and planning and things.

“So, from the range of services we provide we get legal advice on various aspects throughout the year. It may be to do with housing and maybe delayed cases coming to fruition in the last year so by and large they’d be reasonably similar barring some unforeseen circumstances or event that requires legal action.

“We haven’t finalised the recent figures yet, but I know in 2020 our overall revenue account was around €220 million and the capital was around €70 million which would include various capital projects that requires legal advice,” he finished.

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