Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
830. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Justice if she will provide additional funding to the Legal Aid Board to ensure that waiting times for access legal aid are reduced (currently 35 weeks in some parts of the country); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36177/23]
View answerThe Legal Aid Board is the statutory, independent body responsible for the provision of civil legal aid and advice to persons of modest means, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 and the Civil Legal Aid Regulations 1996 to 2021. Section 3(3) of the Act states that the Board shall, subject to the provisions of the Act, be independent in the exercise of its functions.
I am informed that civil legal aid and advice is provided primarily through a network of law centres by solicitors employed by the Board. There are 34 full-time centres and dedicated units and three part-time law centres.
I am further informed that specific law centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway include an international protection speciality and that there are also dedicated units in Dublin dealing with personal injury and/or medical negligence cases and cases involving children at risk. Family mediation services are provided through 10 full time offices and 10 part time offices.
I am informed that the Legal Aid Board also engages private solicitors to supplement the services provided by Board solicitors in certain areas of law on a case-by-case basis, those areas of law being: District Court family law matters, Circuit Court judicial separation and divorce cases, international protection cases, and cases on foot of the Abhaile scheme.
A priority service is provided in certain cases including cases involving domestic violence, child abduction, applications by the State to take children into care or under supervision, and cases that have statutory time limits close to expiry.
The waiting times and numbers for first consultation appointments are published on a regular basis on the website of the Legal Aid Board (www.legalaidboard.ie).
To be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made with the Legal Aid Board, and I am informed that in 2022, the overall average waiting time for a consultation with a solicitor of the 30 law centres that operate a waiting list was 15 weeks, compared with 20 weeks in each of the years 2021, 2020 and 2019. As at 30 June 2023 the average waiting time was 14 weeks.
Funding for the Legal Aid Board for 2023 amounts to €53.060m, which is a 10% increase on the organisation’s funding allocation for the previous year. An additional €500k was provided to the Board in June 2023 to support the recruitment of additional staff to ensure the needs of clients seeking services in respective of international protection applications are met. It is clear, therefore, that the government has sanctioned extra resources for the Legal Aid Board, designed to increase its ability to support its clients.
The matter of resource allocation is an operational matter for the Legal Aid Board which is independent in its functions. I can assure the Deputy that, as part of ongoing governance arrangements, officials in my Department engage regularly with the Board in relation to resourcing matters, including the Estimates process.
