Tag Archives: legal costs

If Clare County Council were a private company, it would be insolvent and its directors fired, Councillor PJ Kelly claimed at this week’s meeting of the local authority. He made his comments while discussing legal costs incurred by the council, having sought information about costs awarded to and against the council regarding court proceedings over the last five years. The information he sought was not available and a written reply said it “will take time to compile this information and, should the councillor require, this information can be collated over the coming weeks”. Councillor Kelly said the council has “very scarce finances” currently, while he noted that €100,000 had been spent on the council’s entrance door. He added that the council is open for 250 days in the year and that the legal expenses incurred averages at in excess of €3,000 per day. “That would be high wages for 15 people; I can’t accept that it is justified,” he commented. …

LEGAL costs which could be more than €500,000 for Ennis Town Council’s defence of two High Court challenges to national legislation are “significant cause for concern” for the local authority. In 2013 Ennis Town Council were involved in two separate cases as a defendant. One case related to the Ennis Casual Trading Bylaws 2011, representing a challenge to the Casual Trading Act 1995 and in particular the status of casual trading on market rights. The council incurred legal costs of €147,000 in relation to this matter. Currently, the council is involved in a separate High Court case regarding the deregulation of the taxi regime. A number of sample cases are being heard in relation to this, including one involving Ennis. The legal costs relating to this are estimated to be in the region of between €300,000 and €450,000. Concern about the cost of the legal battles in defending national legislation to the local authority was outlined at this week’s meeting …