Legal Aid Service.

Tuesday, 1 June 2004

Questions (60)

Jack Wall

Question:

77 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps being taken to address unacceptably long waiting lists for appointments at legal aid centres; the average waiting time for an appointment with a solicitor at the legal aid centres; the longest waiting time at any particular centre; his views on whether such waiting times are acceptable; the additional funding which has been provided to reduce waiting times; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16318/04]

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Written answers

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell)

The Legal Aid Board does not process information relating to the length of waiting lists for free legal aid. However, it records the time the person longest on the waiting list has waited. The following table shows the length of time the person longest on the waiting list has waited as of April 2004 by law centre.

The board operates a procedure whereby priority is accorded for certain categories of cases over other cases, for example, domestic violence, child care and cases where there are time limits. These cases are dealt with immediately. The total number of priority appointments offered by law centres in 2003 was approximately 1500 or almost 22% of the total number of appointments offered to new clients during the year. The board continually monitors the waiting times and is seeking to utilise resources in such a way as to reduce them at centres with particularly long waiting times.

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 Deputy may be interested to note that the grant-in-aid for 2004 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. The grant-in-aid available to the board in 1997 was €10.656 million. The figure for 2004 represents an increase of almost 73% during this period.

Law Centre	Maximum Waiting Time in Months in April, 2004
Athlone	3.00
Castlebar	2.00
Cavan	2.75
Cork, Popes Quay	7.00
Cork, South Mall	12.00
Blanchardstown	9.75
Clondalkin	3.00
Finglas	13.75
Gardiner Street	7.25
Brunswick Street	11.50
Ormond Quay	3.00
Tallaght	10.75
Dundalk	7.50
Ennis	12.25
Galway	7.00
Kilkenny	12.25
Letterkenny	9.50
Limerick	5.00
Longford	0.00
Monaghan	3.50
Navan	11.75
Nenagh	4.50
Newbridge	12.00
Port Laoise	17.00
Sligo	5.00
Tralee	5.00
Tullamore	2.25
Waterford	4.50
Wexford	6.50
Wicklow	10.00