The Bar of Ireland has welcomed the publication of the first review of the Civil Legal Aid Scheme since 1979, led by the former Chief Justice, Mr. Frank Clarke SC.
Speaking following the publication by the Minister for Justice of both a majority and a minority report, the Chair of the Council of The Bar of Ireland, Seán Guerin SC said:
The Review Group has identified a need for a much broader-based and more comprehensive civil legal aid system and has provided an outline of how such a system should be structured and implemented. That process will take time but it is an immensely important one and the Bar Council, in welcoming publication of the Report, calls on the Government to begin that work now with the urgency it so obviously requires.
The Review Group has clearly stated that existing levels of fee payments significantly impede the ability of the Legal Aid Board to do its job in meeting the legal aid needs of the most vulnerable in society in a timely fashion. That needs to be addressed immediately.
The recommendation of the Review Group is that an immediate review is required to examine the Legal Aid Board’s ability to recruit and retain in house solicitors and external expertise, including independent expert barristers. The Bar Council calls upon the Government to establish immediately a meaningful, independent, time-limited and binding mechanism to determine adequate fee structures and fee rates for independent, expert barristers who provide civil legal aid.
The continued application of FEMPI-era pay cuts, long after the process of public sector pay restoration has been completed, is wholly unjustifiable. The Government should implement the immediate and complete reversal of those pay cuts, and should do so certainly no later than in the next Budget.
Seán Guerin SC concluded:
The Bar Council is immediately available to engage constructively with the Department of Justice, the Legal Aid Board and all other interested parties in the recommended review.
Chair of the Civil State Bar Committee of the Council, Cliona Cleary BL said:
The 28 recommendations of the Review Group – which go to the heart of constructing and delivering a functioning legal aid system – will be wholly undermined if urgent consideration is not given to how we remunerate those delivering the services at the front line.
A recent survey of our own members indicated that 95% can already see that practitioners will exit civil legal aid work in favour of more sustainable fees in other areas of practice. 82% of those surveyed said that they will likely reduce their availability for legal aid work if current fee levels remain unchanged.
Recommendation 26 provides that the Minister for Justice should seek the resources required to implement the recommendations in this report which are of a short term and immediate nature through the next Estimates process. This must include the issue of fee restoration.
Media Contact
For interviews or images please contact – Q4 Public Relations, Sinéad McGovern sinead@q4pr.ie 087 6411725