Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
876. Deputy Noel Grealish asked the Minister for Justice the cost of providing free legal aid in criminal cases over each of the past five years, by county; the average cost per alleged offender; the total payment to legal practitioners; the average payment to legal practitioners, over the same period; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36941/23]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act 1962, is the primary legislation covering the operation of the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme and gives effect to the Constitutional right that legal aid may be granted for the defence of persons of insufficient means in criminal proceedings.
It is not possible to provide data by County, number of offenders, category or conviction rates for any of the requested years, as figures are not kept in such a way as to be able to provide such a breakdown.
However, expenditure data is available and the costs for the main Criminal Legal Aid Scheme for each of the years 2018 to 2023 (to end May) was as follows:
|
Year |
Expenditure |
|
2018 |
€64.8 million |
|
2019 |
€65.1 million |
|
2020 |
€62.2 million |
|
2021 |
€73.4 million |
|
2022 |
€76.4 million |
|
2023 |
€36.3 million (end of May) |
|
Payments to legal practitioners for each of the years 2018 to 2022 was as follows: |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
Solicitors |
32.8M |
34.4M |
32.2M |
40.2M |
40M |
|
Counsel |
24.4M |
23.1M |
23.3M |
27.9M |
28.9M |
The balance between overall expenditure and expenditure to the legal professionals is typically in the region of €7.5 million and comprises expenditure on technical experts, expert witnesses, translation and interpretation costs.
