A State fisheries agency that paid out more than €50,000 to a public relations company for support before it appeared before the Dáil Public Accounts Committee also spent €16,000 on legal fees in the run up to the same event.The Irish Times reported in April that Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) had paid €53,933, excluding VAT, to DHR Communications for “training and communications support” provided in advance of a committee hearing on March 26th.In a letter to the Public Accounts Committee, dated July 2nd, IFI said there had also been associated legal costs amounting to an additional €16,768, excluding VAT.“Legal costs are calculated on an hourly basis of time assigned. The integration between all communications and legal compliance was a particularly important aspect of the strategic advisory process”, it said.Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee John Brady said that overall IFI had spent more than €70,000 on fees to support its appearance, not including VAT.He said no one was saying that organisations should not get legal advice. However, the Sinn Féin TD said he believed that in the round, the costs involved in this case were excessive.Committee member James Geoghegan of Fine Gael said when VAT was included the costs were close to €90,000. He said if every single witness appearing for it spent €90,000 on preparation, the committee would be a “laughing stock” as it would increase costs for taxpayers by scrutinising the taxpayers’ spend.IFI said its expenditure of about €53,000 to the public relations company included “strategic support and advice to prepare the written response to the committee in relation to the requested six years of board minutes, and any additional documentation, which comprised 122 documents totalling 1,268 pages on January 14th and training expenditure”.IFI said the communications company “incurred 10 days of documentation review to support the direct training provision”. It said five individuals – staff as well as one board member – received training sessions of approximately one hour.It said one executive received five sessions of training while another senior manager and a board member received four sessions. Others received two sessions of training.“Four joint sessions involving two or more of the above participants of varying duration of approximately one hour on average was also provided. In addition, sessions of group training took place, which incurred five days of expenditure.[ Claims of fraud and blackmail at State fisheries body brings infighting into the publicOpens in new window ]“Training ensured that those appearing for IFI before the committee would be in a position to assist the committee as required, to the fullest extent possible by giving relevant, succinct and complete replies to questions asked in compliance with legislation, without prejudicing any ongoing legal cases, and without unduly taking up the allocated time of the committee members.“These costs in relation to external communications support and training were calculated on a per diem basis of time assigned”, the fisheries agency said.