Call to boost Siteserv inquiry lawyers’ pay to €1,500 a day

The judge leading the inquiry into the sale of Siteserv has called for lawyers’ pay to be doubled to €1,500 per day, The Irish Times reports.

In his interim report, Mr Justice Brian Cregan said lawyers’ pay should be brought in line with the rate paid to lawyers at the inquiry into Garda whistleblowers.

Mr Justice Cregan (pictured) wrote that the legal fees paid in the Siteserv inquiry – €788 per day for senior counsel and €394 for junior counsel – “bear no relationship to the market rate for the difficult, complex commercial law work of this nature”.

He added that the rates were set “at a time when Ireland was experiencing very difficult economic circumstances”.

The report says that pay “should be brought into line immediately” with the €1,500 per hour paid to lawyers in the whistleblowing inquiry.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has granted a one-year extension to the Siteserv inquiry, which will now report by the end of 2018.