Donegal County Council’s 'unjustifiable' legal fees spend questioned

Questions have been raised about Donegal County Council’s spending on legal fees with one councillor branding the figures as “not justifiable”.

The issues surfaced at a meeting in the County House in Lifford on Thursday at which the revenue budget for 2025 was passed. 

It comes after figures released to Independent Councillor Frank McBrearty showed that the Council spent over €2.5million on legal fees between January and October 2024.

Councillor McBrearty and Councillor Joy Beard of the 100% Redress party both raised the question of legal fees.

“There must be a different book for legal fees as the legal fees given to me by the Director of Finance are not in this book,” Councillor McBrearty said.

In calling for “transparency and accountability”, Councillor McBrearty said the legal fees being paid out are “not justifiable”.

Figures released to the Raphoe-based councillor showed that Donegal County Council paid a total of €2,527,978.79. Of that, €1,436,678.96 was paid to William Fry LLP; €761,062.13 to VP McMullin Solicitors; €112,207.16 to Esmond Keane; €65,532.56 to Michael Staines and Aoife Corridan; €48,216.00 to Christopher Hughes; and €34,190.87 to Hugh Ward T/A Hugh J Ward and Co Solicitors.

Councillor McBrearty said: “Someone has to answer what value for money are we getting for these legal fees being paid out by Donegal County Council? An email to me from [Director of Finance at Donegal County Council] Richard Gibson says that over €2.5m was paid out from January to October for legal fees.

“I suggest an independent investigation into the finances of Donegal County Council due to debt accumulated during the Celtic Tiger. If the Coleman Legal cases are successful, it will bankrupt Donegal County Council.”

Coleman Legal has issued proceedings, on behalf of an estimated 1,500 affected homeowners, against Donegal County Council, the National Standards Authority and firms relating to Cassidy Brothers Concrete.

In the days before Thursday’s meeting, Councillor McBrearty sought a meeting with John McLaughlin, the chief executive of the local authority, and Mr Gibson. 

In his notes for the budget book, Mr McLaughlin said: “An amount of €920,954 has been provided for in respect of enforcement activities in 2025.

“This includes site investigations, preparation of cases for prosecution, issuing of warning letters, legal fees, issuing of enforcement notices and prosecution at court.”

Councillor McBrearty hit out at the Council for what he said was a failure to conduct adequate building control and market surveillance in Donegal.

Councillor Beard, who was elected to the Council at the local elections in June, echoed those comments.

“One of my first motions was asking if we can get the proper research done to see how many houses are actually affected,” she told Donegal Live. “The first thing that should be done in a crisis like this is to research and see how many houses we are dealing with and see the actual extent of the damage. I think that 7,000 is vastly underestimated and it could be closer to 30,000 in reality.”

Councillor Beard queried the legal fees associated with Donegal County Council’s defence in the Coleman Legal cases. She asked whether they were covered by central government and said that an explanation of the omission from the book was needed.

“That’s crucial to ensure transparency,” Councillor Beard told Thursday’s meeting.

Councillor Beard confirmed to Donegal Live that she was given a verbal answer by a senior council official who advised that those legal fees are paid for by the council and subsequently reimbursed by central government.

“Were need to know who is paying to fight those cases,” she said. “The reason I asked the question is that people want to know and we need to get the confirmation in writing. It is not appropriate if the council is taking from local resources to finance things like this.”

Councillor Beard reiterated a call for hubs to be set up to assist families dealing with defective concrete.

“It would be a drop-in centre and an information centre all at once,” she said. “The way it is now is that people fear that the council is sort of government facilitator and that is a worry. There is a lot of suffering and worry out there.”

In his notes for the budget book, Mr McLaughlin said that the council owns an estimated 1,200 social houses with similar defective concrete blocks. 

“The Council has made a submission to Government seeking approval and funding for these houses,” he said. “There have been a number of engagements with the Department and it is understood to be at an advanced stage and the Department are likely to provide approval to proceed in 2025.”

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Councillor Beard said: “Every time we have a meeting, we hear heard that this is ‘imminent’ and it hasn’t happened yet. Apparently, it’s imminent again and there is no scheme in place for social housing and people are living in those places. We don’t even know if the council will need to put something towards that scheme.”