Northern Ireland’s lawyers received almost £120m in public funds over a two-year period, it has been revealed.

The legal firm to receive the highest amount of legal aid for civil and criminal cases during that period — £4.6m — was Kevin Winters & Co, followed by £3.2m paid out to Trevor Smyth & Co.

The information — which relates to the 2004/05 and 2005/06 financial years — was released today by the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission following a Freedom of Information request from the Belfast Telegraph and a number of other media outlets for disclosure of payments made to solicitor firms and counsel for publicly funded legal services in Northern Ireland.

It has taken since 2006 to answer the request after a number of concerns were raised by some lawyers who objected to the information being released on security grounds.

However, the LSC today released the names of 100 law firms and barristers in receipt of the highest legal aid payments and said it was committed now to releasing the information on an annual basis.

Among the highest legally funded law firms over the two year period were Kevin Winters & Co, Trevor Smyth & Co, Madden & Finucane, McCann & McCann and McConnell, Kelly & Co.

It is understood that the 100 firms and barristers named were in receipt of around 92% of the overall legal aid funds paid out from 2004 to 2006.

Expenses, wages, some counsel fees and other overheads have to be paid out of the cash total to each firm.

Jim Daniell, chairman of the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission, said that the sums paid to each barrister and solicitor’s practice may represent payments for work covering a number of years and for a variety of cases.

“It is also important to bear in mind that the amount an individual receives year on year can fluctuate widely,” Mr Daniell added.

In a statement, the General Council of the Bar of Northern Ireland, said: “The public is entitled to know how public funds are spent. The Bar Council has supported the Commissions preparation for this publication.

“It is Bar Council policy not to comment on the earnings of individual barristers but the following general points are relevant:

“Amounts received in any one year will cover work done over a number of years on a variety of cases. This will be particularly true in complex fraud cases and in cases involving the safety and protection of children.

“Barristers will have to pay a proportion of fees to cover professional overheads and other expenses typical of any self-employed person.

“The proper representation and defence of those charged with serious crime or the proper representation of those seeking redress in the civil or family courts is in the public interest and in order to ensure that barristers of sufficient calibre to do this work are available they should be paid rates which are appropriate and fair.

“If they are not paid in this way they will do other types of work and this will interfere with the public right of access to justice. The publication sets out details of 100 barristers who have received the highest payments in the relevant years.

“There are hundreds of other barristers who earn significantly less from the Legal Aid fund. (The total number of practising barristers in Northern Ireland is approximately 600).”

There has been concern over legal aid expenditure in Northern Ireland after it emerged that it has risen to £72m in the 2007/08 financial year — around £30m more than 10 years ago. The government has admitted that when compared to other main domestic areas of public spending — such as social care, public safety, health and education — legal aid “has been one of the fastest growing areas of public sector spending over the past few years”.

According to statistics, the rise in legal aid in the province over the past decade is twice the increase seen in England and Wales. Concerns have also been raised over the amount of public funds paid to the legal teams in the failed Omagh Bomb trial. The Belfast Telegraph revealed that the cost to the public has soared to more than £3.5m. Over £2.4m in legal aid has been paid to the Legal Services Commission to cover the fees and costs of the defence team.

Almost £1.2m was paid to three prosecution barristers in the case which ended in the acquittal of the accused, Sean Hoey, after a 56 day trial.