The IBRC liquidation has proved a highly lucrative process for some of the best known financial and law firms in the State.

KPMG, the firm overseeing the process, racked up fees of €52 million across its Irish and UK offices but knocked €5 million off the bill at the request of the Government.

The firm appears to have accrued a total of 242,000 man hours on the liquidation, which works out at €194 per hour per person.

A&L Goodbody, a blue-chip Dublin law firm, was the next best earner. It charged about €22.5 million for 103,000 man hours or a chunky €217 per hour.

The bank’s British legal advice, however, was far more expensive. Linklaters, a London law firm, mainly advised the bank on the sale of IBRC’s UK assets. Its €16 million payout over 14 months works out at €363 per hour.

Dublin law firm Arthur Cox, which appears to have had a fantastic crisis judging from the amount of State work it has picked up, was paid just over €4 million to advise on the sale of projects Sand (Irish home loans) and Stone (Irish commercial property loans).

Byrne Wallace was paid €2.8 million, mostly for its work on the sale of corporate loans. Maples and Calder picked up €2 million, while a US firm was paid almost €1.2 million for work on IBRC’s US bankruptcy.

Price Waterhouse Coopers was paid some €4.6 million to value IBRC’s assets, with a further €4.2 million of fees paid to a panel of 12 estate agents to help value properties underpinning some of the loan sales. MARK PAUL