Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 23 Apr 1997

Vol. 478 No. 2

Written Answers. - Free Legal Aid Centres.

Seán Doherty

Question:

70 Mr. Doherty asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the number of solicitors and other staff in each of the law centres under the Civil Legal Aid Board for each of the years from 1993 to 1996; and the salaries paid to solicitors, legal executives and other staff. [10812/97]

Seán Doherty

Question:

71 Mr. Doherty asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the number of cases dealt with by each law centre under the Civil Legal Aid Board for each of the years from 1993 to 1996; the cost of operating each law centre for each of the years from 1993 to 1995 in respect of the cost of the building, either purchase or rental, running costs including electricity, stationery and so on, staffing costs and other costs; and the number of files each office deals with for each year. [10813/97]

Minister for Equality and Law Reform (Mr. Taylor):

I propose to take Questions Nos. 70 and 71 together.

Details of the number of solicitors and other staff in each of the law centres under the Legal Aid Board for each of the years from 1993 to 1996, as at 31 December each year, are set out in a tabular statement which I propose to have circulated in the Official Report.

The salaries paid to staff of the law centres for the years 1994 to 1996 respectively were £1.612 million, £2.766 million and £3.100 million approximately. Staff records for the years prior to 1994 are not maintained in a form that would facilitate the calculation of the salaries paid to staff of the law centres for any of those years without the allocation of a disproportionate amount of staff time. However, salary payments made to all Legal Aid Board staff in 1993 totalled £2.035 million approximately.

Details of the number of persons provided with legal services by the board for each of the years from 1993 to 1996 are as follows:

	Number of persons provided with legal services	Number of persons given legal advice only	Number of persons given legal advice and representation (i.e. legal aid)
1993	6,807	4,396	2,411
1994	9,994	6,712	3,282
1995	11,366	7,306	4,060
1996	12,462	7,802	4,660

However, information on the number of cases and files dealt with annually in each of the board's law centres from 1993 to 1996 inclusive, could not be made available without the allocation of a disproportionate amount of the board's administrative resources.

Details of the breakdown of expenditure for each of the law centres in 1994 and 1995 are also contained in the tabular statement which I propose to have circulated with the Official Report. Information in respect of the years prior to 1994 are not available in this format because the computerised financial systems now available to the Legal Aid Board had not been introduced in the board at the time.

Law Centres Staffing Levels — 1993 to 1996

Law Centre	1993	1994	1995	1996
Athlone	4	4	5	5
Blanchardstown	—	2	7	7
Castlebar	4	4	5	5
Cavan	—	—	—	3
Clondalkin	8	8	9	9
Cork North	8	6	9	10
Cork South	6	8	9	9
Dundalk	4	4	5	5
Ennis	—	—	5	5
Finglas	8	6	9	9
Galway	7	8	9	9
Gardiner Street	10	12	12	13
Kilkenny	—	2	5	5
Letterkenny	4	4	5	7
Limerick	6	9	7	7
Longford	—	2	3	3
Monaghan	—	1	3	3
Mount Street	—	4	12	9
Navan	—	—	—	5
Nenagh	—	2	5	5
Newbridge	—	—	—	3
Ormond Quay	13	12	11	13
Portlaoise	—	2	5	5
Sligo	2	2	3	3
Tallaght	8	8	9	9
Tralee	4	5	5	7
Tullamore	—	—	—	3
Waterford	6	7	7	7
Wexford	—	—	5	5
Wicklow	—	3	6	5
Total	102	125	175	193

Legal Aid Board Expenditure per Centre 1994

Law Centre	Wages and Salaries	Rent on Leases	Establishment Costs (including ESB)	Other Running Costs	Total Costs
	£	£	£	£	£
Ormond Quay	208,551	22,198	28,901	40,810	300,460
Gardiner Street	187,672	23,440	10,046	18,084	239,242
Tallaght	117,005	20,146	87,314	47,700	272,165
Clondalkin	82,026	21,092	15,183	40,437	158,738
Finglas	83,442	23,940	21,966	43,428	172,776
Athlone	64,447	7,087	3,492	66,814	141,840
Castlebar	56,929	14,319	3,025	14,679	88,952
Cork North	143,166	8,000	9,848	32,998	194,012
Cork South	169,464	22,824	2,976	38,720	233,984
Dundalk	43,630	10,577	5,196	27,578	86,981
Galway	97,847	17,400	5,105	39,682	160,034
Letterkenny	53,396	6,736	2,557	15,288	77,977
Limerick	79,945	12,325	4,254	26,049	122,573
Sligo	34,455	6,135	4,808	12,024	57,422
Tralee	55,743	7,150	4,947	9,547	77,387
Waterford	87,074	2,527	6,495	43,571	139,667
Nenagh	17,489	10,573	4,617	17,050	49,729
Longford	10,729	0	4,102	13,959	28,790
Kilkenny	4,311	1,263	3,907	5,302	14,783
Portlaoise	3,941	0	3,536	10,838	18,315
Blanchardstown	250	500	348	0	1,098
Wicklow	7,918	20,719	5,328	5,047	39,012
Monaghan	0	0	0	0	0
Wexford	0	0	289	151	440
Ennis	2,343	25	0	0	2,368
Mount Street	271	21,000	0	0	21,271
Total	1,612,044	279,976	238,240	569,756	2,700,016

Legal Aid Board Expenditure per Centre 1995

Law Centre	Wages and Salaries	Rent on Leases	Establishment Costs (including ESB)	Other Running Costs	Total Costs
	£	£	£	£	£
Ormond Quay	247,840	20,285	18,522	84,197	370,844
Gardiner Street	245,576	24,067	19,013	117,498	406,154
Tallaght	158,534	23,527	11,141	84,039	277,241
Clondalkin	173,093	24,173	9,093	78,086	284,445
Finglas	117,563	20,520	6,649	66,655	211,387
Athlone	89,566	6,601	2,223	59,469	157,859
Castlebar	85,008	12,250	2,753	31,705	131,716
Cork North	171,573	14,726	11,934	81,041	279,274
Cork South	172,562	19,412	61,035	49,566	302,575
Dundalk	57,945	9,556	2,871	52,713	123,085
Galway	130,584	17,400	13,112	48,150	209,246
Letterkenny	69,841	6,756	2,496	27,635	106,728
Limerick	108,598	13,200	4,726	45,773	172,297
Sligo	64,913	6,060	3,292	22,948	97,213
Tralee	90,523	8,225	2,936	26,634	128,318
Waterford	113,505	1,265	8,552	38,823	162,145
Nenagh	60,061	3,800	3,620	16,202	83,683
Longford	48,159	300	2,104	21,482	72,045
Kilkenny	56,322	7,193	2,018	20,755	86,288
Portlaoise	65,168	22,553	22,618	20,102	130,441
Blanchardstown	96,914	24,148	27,244	36,213	184,519
Wicklow	54,266	11,050	5,884	21,179	92,379
Monaghan	48,628	15,671	7,791	24,960	97,050
Wexford	8,825	2,175	34,794	14,023	59,817
Ennis	42,211	6,675	76,128	23,716	148,730
Mount Street	188,693	33,280	36,658	79,267	337,898
Total	2,766,471	354,868	399,207	1,192,831	4,713,377