The new plan – launched by the Irish State Claims Agency (SCA) -- follows a similar move last year that reduced the fees paid to solicitors by 25 per cent, according Dublin-based national newspaper The Independent.

Lucrative work

The scheme will see barristers tender for the highly lucrative work, and the fee will have to be agreed before any work is carried out. The SCA -- which is the claims management arm of the National Treasury Management Agency -- claims the scheme could potentially lead to even greater savings than the mooted 25 per cent.
SCA director Ciaran Breen commented: ‘We receive an excellent service from the barristers we engage but we now plan to use our buying power to benefit the taxpayer.’
Last year, the SCA received almost 2,700 new claims and resolved more than 1,600. It hopes the new scheme will provide ‘immediate’ savings to its legal bill, which last year topped €36.7m.