THREE LUNCHES COSTING between €156 and €183, legal fees of more than €860,000, and €676 for USB memory keys were part of more than €1.07 million in costs run up by the NAMA Commission of Investigation.
The inquiry – chaired by retired High Court Judge John Cooke – is estimated to have cost almost €3 million since its establishment in June 2017.
A detailed breakdown of more than €1.5 million of those costs reveals that legal costs ran at an average of €43,000 every month in the period between January 2019 and early September this year.
Staff costs during the same period came to €440,704 according to a line-by-line breakdown of expenditure that was released under FOI.
Another €52,000 was paid to three separate independent experts to the commission while €38,722 was paid out for stenography and audio transcription.
The Commission also ran up a €1,108 for hosting meetings and providing accommodation for experts at the Kildare Street and University Club, and the Conrad Hotel.
Another €2,040 was spent on air fares, primarily on tickets from London to Dublin to fly in expert witnesses for the investigation.
The inquiry clocked up a €9,885 cleaning bill for its premises including a small €36 bill for hand sanitiser.
Other costs included €1,349 for extra memory and computing powers for commission PCs so that they could manage the large amount of data the inquiry is working with.
There was also a software licensing bill of €12,070, another €10,500 in electricity costs, and a printing bill of €23,460.
Nearly €800 was spent on photocopying paper, another €1,500 on postage, with €358 paid out for refreshments including tea, coffee, and milk supplies.
The inquiry paid out €1,539 for stationary costs as well as €3,550 for telephone and fax billing.
Three working lunches were also billed to the commission, according to the records with the most expensive costing €183.
It was described in the expenditure database as a lunch hosted by the inquiry for the Independent Adviser to the Commission and took place in July last year.
The price of two other lunches – one costing €178.20 and the other €156.50 – are also listed as having been refunded to Judge Cooke.
The first bill covered hosting lunch for the Commission’s solicitor, two junior counsel, and the Independent Expert to the Commission.
The second bill for €156.50 covered a lunch for five people including an independent expert, according to records that were released by the Department of the Taoiseach.
A statement from the Commission said: “The three lunches were working lunches with Advisers to the Commission from abroad which took place in Dublin city centre.
“[They] were attended by the Sole Member, the Commission Solicitor, the Adviser and members of the Commission team.”
The inquiry, which has been running for three years, is investigating the controversial sale of NAMA’s portfolio of assets in Northern Ireland, referred to as Project Eagle.
Its original report deadline was June 2018 and it has published eight interim reports so far with a final report expected within weeks, according to reports.
Latest estimates for costs were €3 million at the end of October but large third-party costs have yet to be added to that bill. The final cost for the inquiry has been estimated at €10 million by the Department of the Taoiseach.
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