In the last substantial ruling on legal costs relating to the commission, which published its final report a decade ago, Taxing Master Declan O’Neill said the congregation should only receive fees for briefing one senior counsel rather than two, The Irish Times reports.

He acknowledged that barristers acting for the congregation had already been paid, and said this was up to the solicitors’ firm and their client to deal with.

A series of commission hearings in 2015 examined claims of abuse at Christian Brothers institutions in Artane, Letterfrack and Tralee.

The congregation was represented by Dublin firm Maxwells Solicitors and barristers Patrick Hanratty SC, Sara Moorhead SC and Joseph O’Sullivan BL.

The Taxing Master was considering a bill of €1.8 million relating to barristers’ fees. The solicitors have already been paid €2.2 million.

His decision reduces the total sought in brief fees from €658,366 to €204,500, with only one of the two senior counsel which worked on the commission to be paid. He set refresher fees at €2,000 per day for senior counsel and €1,200 for junior counsel.

Mr O’Neill said there was “no cogent explanation … as to why two senior counsel were ultimately briefed”, and said correspondence with the commission in 2015 which it was claimed constituted approval could not be “relied upon to such effect”.

He also disallowed payments to six unnamed barristers who were consulted by Christian Brothers witnesses as they prepared statements, but allowed payments for non-consultation work on reviewing and finalising the statements of €200 per statement.

Fees for the six barristers have therefore been reduced to around €65,200 from a total sought of €325,129.