asked the Minister for Justice the amount of money spent each year on the legal aid scheme since its inception; and the amount paid to (a) each solicitor and (b) each barrister in each of the years of its operation up to and including 1987.
Written Answers. - Legal Aid Scheme.
44.
I assume that the information sought by the Deputy relates to payments made to solicitors and barristers under the criminal legal aid scheme.
The cost of the scheme is published in the Annual Appropriation Account, under subhead F.1 of the Vote for the Office of the Minister for Justice. I propose to write to the Deputy giving him the details published in the Appropriation Accounts of the amounts of money spent each year on the criminal legal aid scheme, since the scheme was introduced on 1 April 1965.
Records of the fees paid to individual solicitors and barristers under the scheme are kept on a tax year basis in my Department. In writing to the Deputy I will also let him have the appropriate Dáil debate references to information, published in response to previous Parliamentary Questions, on the earnings of lawyers under the scheme for most years from 1977, together with details of earnings for the years which were not published in the Debates (viz. 1983-84, 1985-86 and 1986-87). It would require a disproportionate expenditure of public time and money to compile a breakdown of the amounts paid to each individual over the years before 1977.