Vol. 443 No. 1
21 Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform if he will give details of the pilot scheme at Aston House to deal with custody, access, barring orders and maintenance; whether it is intended to continue with this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
22 Mr. Cullen asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the present position with regard to waiting lists for free legal aid centres; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
24 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform his views on whether there is equality of access to the courts; and, if not, the steps, if any, he proposes to take on the issue.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 21, 22 and 24 together.
The grant-in-aid of £5 million which I have secured from the Government for the Legal Aid Board for 1994 will enable the board to open ten new full time law centres and four new part-time law centres this year. Arrangements are being made by the board to begin opening new centres in the next few weeks. By the end of the year there will be 26 full time and 17 part-time law centres and every county will have either a full-time or part-time law centre.
The staffing resources of the Legal Aid Board have also been substantially increased since I took over responsibility for legal aid. In 1993, the number of solicitors was increased by 12 and the number of support staff by 29. By the end of this year a further 24 solicitors and 34 support staff will have been recruited which will bring the total complement of staff employed by the board to 178, i.e. 75 solicitors and 103 support staff — an increase of over 100 per cent since early last year.
I also introduced last year a pilot project for the involvement of private solicitors in the provision, in certain circumstances, of legal services for the board. This project, which in Dublin operates from Aston House, is confined to the conduct of cases for maintenance, barring and custody orders in the District Court. It operates nationwide and enables the making of arrangements by law centres with local private solicitors to provide a direct service to clients. The effectiveness of the project is being reviewed in the overall context of the board's development plant.
The additional staff recruited last year, as well as the use of private solicitors, has already resulted in significant reductions in waiting lists. An indication of the success of these developments is that the numbers on the waiting lists in the various law centres have been almost halved since commencement of the development programme nine months ago. Waiting time in 12 of the board's current 16 law centres is four months or under. In three centres it is between seven and eight months and in one centre it is ten months. This compares well with the position in the law centres some nine months ago when only six of the centres were in the "four months or under category", while legal aid applicants at seven centres had to wait ten or more months for a first appointment with solicitor.
Deputies will agree that the developments I have outlined are a good indication of my determination and that of the Government to ensure access to the courts.
A tabular statement setting out the waiting times for individual centres will be circulated in the Official Report.
We acknowledge that waiting lists have been reduced and we are grateful. It is unclear from the Minister's reply whether it is intended to continue with the pilot scheme. In regard to the solicitors involved in the scheme and the new centres, is the Minister satisfied that they have the requisite experience because some concern has been expressed by a number of groups that the solicitors involved in the new centres may not have the necessary familiarity with the whole area of family law which they feel is required? These groups need a reassurance from the Minister in that regard.
I cannot give an assurance about any solicitor but 140 solicitors participate in the scheme and even those who had little experience when they began have certainly gained it now. Private solicitors dealt with 457 cases which were sent to them from the Aston Quay centre in Dublin. Clearly they will gain a degree of professionalism in dealing with family law cases if they do not have it already. They are all qualified professional people. The scheme seems to be a worthwhile one which has substantial support from solicitors. It will be reviewed by my Department shortly and consideration will then be given to continuing it or making variations to it.
