SEVEN government departments spent more than €41m on legal fees in the past six years despite having use of the Attorney General and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. The massive bills have, in some cases, continued to rise in the recession, with particularly large costs accrued at the Department of Finance.

Legal services costs at Finance ballooned last year to €5.87m, primarily for advice sought on Nama, the bank guarantee scheme and Anglo Irish Bank. In total, legal costs at Brian Lenihan's department have reached more than €10.54m since the beginning of 2004.

Significant legal costs were also amassed by the Office of Public Works, where more than €3m has been spent on lawyers since 2006.

The Revenue Commissioners spent between €1.2m and €1.9m on lawyers for each of the last six years. The Department of Transport spent €4.4m on legal advice in recent years. The Department of Foreign Affairs spent more than €1.5m on "external legal services" since 2004, it revealed.

A bill of almost €700,000 was run up by the Department of Arts, Tourism, Culture and Sport, while the Department of Communications spent €3m on legal fees in the past four years.

The figures were released to Fine Gael TD PJ Sheehan by a number of government departments but others had yet to calculate all of their costs.