Vol. 504 No. 5
150 Mr. Coveney asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the plans, if any, he has to address the shortage of availability of free legal aid for people in the Cork area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12371/99]
Civil legal aid and advice, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Legal Aid Act, 1995, are provided by the Legal Aid Board from a nationwide network of law centres for applicants who meet the qualifying criteria contained in the 1995 Act and in regulations made under that Act. While the Act provides for payment of a contribution by an applicant, which is calculated in accordance with the regulations, it also provides that the contribution can be dispensed with in certain circumstances.
The board operates two law centres in Cork which are located at South Mall and Pope's Quay. They had a staff complement which included four solicitors and five solicitors respectively until July 1998 when they were allocated an additional solicitor post each. This was done in order to help reduce the waiting times at the law centres. Both law centres have a vacancy currently for a solicitor at grade A level, recruitment grade, and the board is in the process of recruiting staff for these vacancies.
I understand that in the coming months the board intends to extend on a nationwide basis the private practitioner scheme which it has operated in the Dublin area for some years. This should enable the law centres to devote more resources towards non-District Court matters and consequently reduce waiting times. The private practitioner scheme provides a complementary legal service to that which is already available from the law centres in certain family law matters.
