Cost of Bloody Sunday inquiry soars

The bill for the five-year Bloody Sunday inquiry has spiralled to £113 million.

The figure, which emerged after the hearings resumed in London, was calculated by inquiry officials.

Published for the first time today, it includes millions spent on hotels, flights and security as Lord Saville's investigation has switched locations.

But it is the lawyers' fees that are the most startling, rising to an estimated £50 million. At least 16 barristers have now earned more than £500,000 each in fees, with one - Edwin Glasgow QC, who represents some of the soldiers called as witnesses - understood to have earned in excess of £2.5 million.

The inquiry, meeting after its summer break, will soon question its 800th witness. Hearings will last until Christmas with a final report not expected until next autumn.

It was in early 1998 that Tony Blair announced a fresh inquiry into the events of 30 January 1972, when soldiers from the Paratroop Regiment opened fire during a civil rights march in Londonderry, killing 14 civilians.

He was bowing to two decades of pressure from nationalists and republicans to reopen the investigation, following the Widgery tribunal soon after the incident exonerated the troops and concluded many of the dead had been bombers or gunmen. Mr Blair told the Commons: "Our concern now is simply to establish the truth and close this painful chapter once and for all."

Tories and Ulster Unionists accepted the inquiry, although they queried whether it could arrive at the truth so long after the event.

But now critics are highlighting the growing cost of the hearings, today entering their 362nd day.

The Tories contrasted the way the inquiry is "lumbering on" with the swift way Lord Hutton is conducting the David Kelly probe.

Conservative spokesman Lord Glentoran said: "It is a disgrace that the inquiry is now in its sixth year and has cost £113 million. We all want to get to the truth of what happened on Bloody Sunday, but this is turning into little more than a gravy train for lawyers."

And a spokesman for David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party added: "This money could have been spent on schools and hospitals for the people of Northern Ireland."

Even Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has cast doubt on the wisdom of holding an inquiry. In June, faced with demands for a judicial inquiry into the war in Iraq, he pointed out that the Bloody Sunday probe was "now costing scores and scores of millions of pounds".

Unionist MPs have used Parliamentary questions to extract from the Government a detailed breakdown of where the money has gone. By this summer the inquiry had spent £2 million on transport, £5.5 million on hiring halls, £7.3 million on accommodation, £12.3 million on hi-tech equipment, and £23.9 million on office costs and salaries for staff excluding lawyers.

More than 50 barristers are taking part, each earning £1,500 per day they work. Solicitors are paid up to £190 per hour. Lord Saville's legal team and lawyers for the victims' families were together paid £38.2 million up to this summer.

At least £15 million more has been paid by the Ministry of Defence to soldiers' lawyers. The Government says the cost of the inquiry to taxpayers will total £155 million.

In the first phase, witnesses to the shootings gave evidence at the Guildhall in Londonderry. But ex-Paras won a court challenge not to return to Northern Ireland to give evidence and the inquiry moved to Central Hall, Westminster, adding an estimated £15 million to costs.

Hearings continue in London for another month before returning to Londonderry for what could be dramatic evidence from six former members of the Official IRA, active in Londonderry at the time of Bloody Sunday.

Finally the inquiry's star witness, Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness, will use his appearance to deny an allegation from a former MI5 agent that he fired the first shot at the march. He admits he was number two in the Provisional IRA's Londonderry command at the time, but is expected to claim republicans did not fire on British troops that day.