IBRC Commission runs up €2.5m in costs

The long-running IBRC Commission has run up another €2.5 million in costs, including legal bills of €1.5 million and public relations costs of over €46,000.

The inquiry, which was set up to investigate the controversial sale of the company Siteserv with a write-down of €119 million by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), is expected to cost more than €30 million by the time it is completed.

A database of costs incurred by the commission since July 2021 details €1.52 million paid to 10 different legal representatives. One lawyer was paid just over €400,000 for providing assistance to the commission, another was paid more than €386,000, while one barrister received about €187,000.

Another €101,000 was incurred in legal charges paid to solicitors Arthur Cox, according to records which were released by the Department of the Taoiseach.

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The commission spent just over €147,000 on external service providers, including cybersecurity for the provision of documents to the inquiry.

Bill

A sum of €48,000 was paid out to Gara Ryan Tax and Business Solutions for advisory work for the IBRC commission, the records showed.

A hotel bill of €573 was also incurred to provide accommodation in Dublin for a witness providing evidence to the inquiry.

The commission paid out just over €250,000 in rental costs for its headquarters on Mount Street in Dublin, along with the lease of car parking spaces.

Another €55,755 was spent on service charges for its accommodation, while just over €2,200 was spent on the dismantling, transfer, and reconstruction of shelving units there.

A sum of €2,636 was spent on offsite storage for the vast collection of files that have been gathered during the course of the inquiry.

The IBRC Commission also spent €46,621 on the provision of public relations services through MComm Communications Consultants in Dublin.

Other bills included €544 for refreshments, relocation expenses of €6,479 when the commission moved office, waste removal bills of €1,954, and another €2,044 on security.

One of the largest bills was the €240,000 paid out for stenography costs to keep a word-for-word transcription of proceedings.

Asked about the current costs of the commission, the Department of the Taoiseach said that by the end of February, costs were approximately €11.15 million but that this excluded third-party legal costs.

Deadline

The inquiry, which was established in June 2015, had an original deadline of the end of that year, but has been repeatedly extended with the latest extension granted until August 2022. The Department said the commission had estimated final costs in February 2020 at €12-€14.5 million based on finishing its work by the end of 2020.

It said: “[The Department] has given its view on many occasions that the final cost is likely to significantly exceed the commission’s estimate and could exceed €30 million.

“The further extension of its timeline, as well as the commission’s acknowledgement of the possibility of court challenges, further supports [the] department’s view.”

Asked about the costs incurred by the inquiry, a spokesman for the IBRC Commission said it had nothing further to add.