I propose to take Questions Nos. 308, 316 and 320 together.
The Deputies will be aware that, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995, the Legal Aid Board is independent in the exercise of its functions. In particular, section 30 of the Act provides that responsibility for determining how legal services should be provided is solely a matter for the Legal Aid Board. The responsibility of the board in this regard includes decisions in relation to the location of law centres.
I am sure that the Deputies will appreciate that the aim of the Legal Aid Board is to provide a cost effective and professional service, in a timely manner, to the greatest number of persons possible within the level of resources available to it. In this regard the board, as part of its remit, constantly monitors the operation of its law centre network, including the location of law centres, with a view to ensuring that its services are available to the greatest number of people from within its available resources.
As part of this process, I understand that the board is examining the possible benefits of relocating some or all of its suburban law centres in Dublin to locations in the city centre, to bring them closer to the courts. However I have not received any concrete proposals in this regard from the board and I would expect that any such proposal would take into account any proposals by the Courts Service in relation to the location of family law court sittings.
With regard to the position on long term funding for legal aid centres, I can inform the Deputies that funding is allocated to the board, by way of a grant-in-aid and that funding is not allocated by me to individual law centres. In this regard the Deputies may be interested to note that the grant-in-aid to the Legal Aid Board for this year is €18.388 million, an increase of almost 5% over the 2003 provision of €17.539 million. The level of resources provided to the Legal Aid Board in recent years has increased significantly. In 1997 the grant-in-aid available to the board was €10.656 million. The figure for 2004 represents an increase of almost 73% during this period. During this period, sanction to employ additional staff was conveyed to the board. Since 1997 sanctioned posts in the board's law centre network increased from 191 to 215, of which 89 are solicitor posts, an increase of eight solicitor posts.