Leitrim County Council has spent almost €1 million on legal fees over the past two years
Last year's legal bill was almost €388,000 while the bill came to nearly €570,000 in 2024.
Leitrim County Council has spent almost €1 million on legal fees over the past two years, acccording to freedom of information figures.
Last year's legal bill was almost €388,000 while the bill came to nearly €570,000 in 2024.
Speaking to the Leitrim Observer, Cllr Brendan Barry said that he was disappointed that the council were spending so much on legal fees.
He said: "It seems like a lot of money to be spending on legal fees but it probably covers a wide range of different issues such as land transfers and property purchases and sales."
He said he would rather see the money spent on "physical infrastructure and new houses and getting houses up to standard; anything would be better than legal fees."
He conceded that county councils can do very little about these kinds of fees being incurred. "There probably isn't much they can do to avoid it but it seems like a lot of money."
Kieran Brett - Administrative Officer at Leitrim County Council told the Leitrim Observer that the money goes towards "conveyancing, land transfer and purchase - we would do land deals with a lot of land owners where we're widening roads etc. and there is compensation for the land owners. Also house purchases, planning enforcement and legal cases that we are taking and legal cases that we are defending and then there would be legal advice around for example, the design of a capital project such as the N4 - big projects like that."