Tease this out. Were there difficulties with your case? Contributory negligence? Anything like that? If so and if your lawyer explained to you as follows:
1. You could win.
2. You could lose.
3. You have to pay the lawyer - in the end, its your case not theirs, you are the person employing them and you have to pay the fees.
It sounds as if you might have run a High Court action ( very expensive) but settled for Circuit Court sums. So, the costs of running the High Court action will not be covered by the Circuit Court Costs. And if the Defendant has no money, then it is going to be hard to recover your costs. If he cannot or will not pay them, then while you have an order for costs, that is very far removed from actually getting the hard cash.
"There was a specific agreement that the damages received would be paid directly to me or I would not have settled for almost one third of my claim."
If your legal advisors settled the case and specifically agreed costs with you and specifically agreed that the settlement cheque would go directly to you without deduction, you are on stronger ground.
mf