In reply to the letter suggesting that the Bar Council should investigate the two senior counsel in the Moriarty tribunal (Letters, 22 February), we would like to set the record straight. The two senior counsel in the Moriarty tribunal were not "overpaid as a result of a simple clerical error" or overpaid at all. They were paid at a rate expressly agreed with the Department of Taoiseach in 2002 and the department has confirmed this as recently as 21 February in the Irish Independent.

Fees for senior counsel at the Moriarty tribunal were set in 1997 when the tribunal was established, and were not increased for five years. Following negotiations with the department in 2002, a new rate of €2,500 per day was agreed with senior counsel and was notified to them by letter in June 2002. Around this time, the fees for senior counsel in other tribunals were agreed at €2,250. Accordingly, the department reviewed and reconsidered what was the appropriate fee for the Moriarty senior counsel.

The Bar Council has no role in any fee arrangements between any barrister and his or her clients but the suggestion that the barristers in question have in any way brought the profession into disrepute is utterly without foundation and entirely contrary to the facts of the matter.

Jerry Carroll,

Director, Bar Council,

Four Courts, Dublin 7.