THE costs awarded to lawyers and advisers for Larry Goodman and Goodman international, granted by the Taxing Master last July, and currently being appealed by the Minister for Finance include:
1. £3.2 million for A. & L. Goodbody solicitors. The payments included £100,000 for skill and complexity and £100,000 for "responsibility and effort".
2. £3 million for five barristers. This breaks down as follows:
. £923,420 for Dermot Gleeson SC: the current Attorney General. This is made up of brief fees of £175,000; refresher fees of £3,000 a day when the tribunal was sitting, preparatory fees of £1,260 a day, and £75,000 for preparing final submissions which he was also paid £3,000 a day to deliver.
. £409,700 for Seamus McKenna SC.
. £623,025 for Ian Finlay BL.
. £651,875 for Donal O'Donnell BL.
. £368,025 for Michael Collins BL.
3. £554,000 for Messrs O'Donnell solicitors. This firm told the Taxing Master that "it is not the practice within the firm to account for actual time spent on files of cases". £118,157 for Somers and Associates for an analysis of beef prices between 1986 and 1991, charged at £110 an hour for work by a partner in the firm and £15 an hour for a junior assistant. This analysis was not in fact relevant to the tribunal, since most of the beef in question was not purchased from Irish farmers.
5. £162,361 to Pat Heneghan, a PR consultant, for "patrolling the coverage" of the tribunal by the media, charged at a rate initially of £100 an hour and subsequently at a rate of £1,500 a week.
6. £116,503 for the accountants Stokes Kennedy Crowley for preparing Goodman evidence on taxation matters. The tribunal found that Goodman International had practised systematic tax evasion over many years.
7. £76,000 to Craig Gardner and Price Waterhouse for reports on EU regulations. This sum is made up of £180 an hour for one consultant, £120 an hour for a second, and £115 an hour for a third. The Taxing Master found that it was irrelevant" whether these reports were actually submitted to or used by the tribunal.
8. £35,000 to Mr Brian Britton, the former deputy chief executive of Goodman International, for preparing his evidence and attending the tribunal at a rate £150 an hour. Mr Britton was one of those at the top of a company which was found to have engaged in large-scale tax evasion and other malpractice.
9.£33,906 to Concept Catering for services to the Goodman legal team, awarded on the basis that this avoided the need to have personnel "leaving base and finding alternative eating facilities".
10. £29,573 to Stewarts Farm Management Consultants, charged at £100 an hour. £800 of this sum, however, represents a "stand-by fee", paid to the consultants for being available on days they were not actually required.
11. £3,670 for the services of a statistician, Mr Brendan Whelan, charged to the taxpayer at £300 a day.
12. £2,110 for the services of an unnamed professional photographer.
13. £3,536 to cover hotel bills for Larry Goodman, who gave evidence over just four days of the tribunal. The Taxing Master was told that this figure included the cost of parking, meals, laundry services and television.
