Staggering €11 Million Legal Fee For Guardian Ad Litem Services

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has his said that the legal costs associated with providing the guardian ad litem service for vulnerable children before the courts must be immediately reviewed. Deputy McGrath was speaking after he received notification from the Minister for Children James Reilly of the fees paid to solicitors and legal counsel by The Child and Family Agency Tusla for 2014 to date:

“The level of fees that are being paid to solicitors and legal Counsel is absolutely staggering when you consider the degradation in funding across other vital areas of child welfare.

Legal costs incurred by guardians ad litem for 2014 totalled €7,457,717.97, which is composed of €6,017,312.06 in respect of Solicitors fees and €1,440,405.91 in respect of Counsel fees.

Legal costs for guardians ad litem from January to August 2015 totalled €3,702,965.16, which is composed of €2,992,274.86 in respect of Solicitors fees and €710,690.30 in respect of Counsel fees.

This means that over €11 million has been spent in just over a year and a half at a time when parts of the country like North Tipperary for example are experiencing social worker understaffing levels of up to 66%.

The Minister in his reply to me acknowledges that these payments are currently provided on an ad hoc and unregulated basis.

This is simply not acceptable.

The guardian ad litem service is invaluable and important but that does mean that millions of euros in solicitors fees should be accumulating at a seemingly unstoppable rate,” concluded Deputy McGrath.