The sole member of a Commission of Investigation, which is expected to publish a report critical of Government penal policy, prison management and overcrowding, has not been paid for almost a year.
Senior Counsel Grainne McMorrow, who was appointed by the Government in May 2007, is finalising her report into the killing of Gary Douch.
The 21-year-old prisoner died after he was attacked by a mentally ill inmate in an overcrowded cell in Mountjoy Prison in August 2006.
Stephen Egan is serving life for manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
Ms McMorrow would not comment today on her remuneration but has insisted she will finish her report, even though she is still not being paid and will send it to Justice Minister Dermot Ahern within the next three months.
Douch died after he was attacked in an overcrowded cell in Mountjoy Prison by a mentally ill man on anti-psychotic drugs who had spent the previous two weeks in seclusion at the Central Mental Hospital.
Egan was then transferred to Mountjoy and was without his medication for three days before Douch was put into a basement cell with him and five other men.
Criminal proceedings commenced and Egan was jailed for life after he was found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
He lost his appeal, which concluded three weeks ago.
In the meantime, the Commission of Investigation heard evidence and took statements from over 150 witnesses.
The investigation has so far cost less than €2m and has come in under budget.
All other staff have been paid from that money, including part-time Senior and Junior Counsel, expert psychiatrists and psychologists from Ireland and the UK, and the one other full-time staff member, a secretary seconded from the Department of Justice.
However, that money cannot be used to pay the commission's sole member. Ms McMorrow was paid for the first two-and-a-half years, but her pay was stopped on 20 January and she has not been paid since.
Both the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice have been informed on a number of occasions that her wages have been stopped, but it is understood she has been told there is no money to pay her.
The final draft of her report is due to be completed next month and, once those who have been named in it have been allowed comment on it, it will be published by next February.
