asked the Minister for Justice if he will state, in relation to the children's court, the number of people who appeared before it in each of the past four years; the proportion of these who were legally represented; the proportion of these who applied for legal aid and were (a) granted and (b) refused it; what efforts are made to impress on those appearing before the court the value and availability of legal aid; the range of offences tried; and the sentences imposed by the court.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Children's Court.
73.
I assume that the Deputy's Question relates to the Dublin Metropolitan children's court.
Statistics are compiled in relation to the numbers of cases that are heard by the court rather than the numbers of persons who appear before it. During the last four calendar years the numbers of cases heard by the court were as follows: 1967, 9,832; 1968, 12,287; 1969, 13,654; 1970, 16,586. No records are kept of persons who were legally represented before the court.
The following are details of applications for free legal aid dealt with by the court in each of the last four calendar years and in the first five months of this year:
|
1967 |
14 applications |
1 granted |
|
1968 |
18,, |
4,, |
|
1969 |
6,, |
2,, |
|
1970 |
9,, |
1,, |
|
1971 (up to 31 May |
40,, |
13,, |
A notice is displayed in the office of the children's court drawing attention to the provisions of the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act, 1962.
No statistics are available classifying the offences dealt with or the sentences imposed by the court, and their compilation would involve a great deal of work. It can be taken that in practice the court deals with all the usual range of offences, except homicide. It has no jurisdiction to deal with homicide.
Is the Minister concerned about the minuscule proportion of the total number of cases dealt with in the court in which defendants are granted free legal aid? Is he not also concerned about the fact that of the applications for free legal aid only a very small proportion are granted? Surely one case out of 9,832 granted free legal aid in 1967 represents a ridiculously small proportion considering that most of the children appearing generally come from families of poor background and therefore would naturally, both from an educational and financial point of view, require free legal aid? Would the Minister consider making this aid available in a more realistic manner?
Applications are made only in a surprisingly small number of cases. There is a notice there informing people of their right to apply for it.
If there was a greater success rate among those who did apply it would encourage others to apply, but if only one out of 14 is granted free legal aid it might not seem worthwhile.
The Deputy will appreciate that the decision to grant aid or not on any particular application is one for the district justice and I am not prepared to comment on that.
Would the Minister not be prepared to consider that it would be worthwhile to have this aid given automatically without it being necessary to apply, because many of these people cannot and will not apply for a variety of reasons? I am sure the Minister appreciates this. It is something they should have.
I regret to see that very few do apply but I notice that this year there has been a very considerable increase. There were more applications in the first five months of this year than in the previous five years.
Is there some association getting them to apply?
No. I increased the fees last year. That is possibly the answer.
Question No. 74 postponed.