In the past three years, the department has paid 10.1m to barristers and solicitors involved in 72 such cases . . . or almost 150,000 per case . . .but paid out only 1.2m in settlements.

At a Dail finance committee hearing, the department said that legal fees charged by barristers and solicitors representing the parents were, in many cases, "disproportionate."

It added that the legal costs run up by parents were so high in some cases that it actually prevented a settlement even where the issue of educational provision had been agreed.

An Education spokesman said the department believed that, as it was dealing with taxpayers' money, it was wrong to pay the parents' full legal costs in all cases, particularly when they were so high and when the child was actually getting a good service. The department is currently contesting legal costs in six such cases.

In 2003, legal and consultancy fees across all government departments totalled 28.6m, but the government this year expects to have to pay 66.5m to barristers and solicitors defending the rising number of claims against the state.