750 Deputy Alan Shatter asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport in each of the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 the arrangements entered into by her Department for the obtaining of advice from a firm of solicitors and or from senior or junior counsel; in each case the subject matter in respect of which advices were sought, the name of the solicitors firm and or barristers concerned and the fees paid; the nature of the work concerned, that is, whether it involved the drafting of legislation or the obtaining of legal advices; whether in each case the matter concerned was advertised for tender and where not, why not. [1628/11]

The information sought by the Deputy is as set out in tabular form below. In general, whenever my Department requires legal services, it obtains these from the Office of the Attorney General and/or the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. Any associated fee costs are borne directly by those two Offices. However, on occasion and in exceptional circumstances, the Department, including the National Archives, may obtain legal services from other sources.

(*The contract in respect of the PPP project for the new Abbey Theatre was entered into between the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) and McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors. NDFA makes the fee payments to the solicitors and the Department refunds the NDFA).